Franco Banfi was born in Switzerland in 1958. He first started diving in the lake near home in 1981. Two years later, driven by a desire to travel and explore, he went to the Maldives where he took his first underwater photographs. In the following years he continued diving in the lakes and rivers close to his home before venturing to the Mediterranean and tropical seas and deepened his qualification to become an underwater instructor.

In the rivers where the water is more clear, he was able to improve his photographic technique. He has participated in numerous photographic competitions, obtaining many awards all around the world: CMAStrophy, New Zealand, Los Angeles California, Nikon photo contest, Palermo festival, Festival mondial de l'image sousmarine Antibes, Grand Master trophy Birmingham England. In 1992 he represented Switzerland at the World underwaterphotography championship in Cuba where he won the individual title of World Champion.

The participation in the photo’s competitions has allowed him to be introduced in the international field, today he dedicates more achievement of reportages and images selling for different use.
In 1996 he has published a book of images and a dive guide about Papua New Guinea, edited by White Star Vercelli. Banfi's work has appeared on several magazines: Aqva, Aqua Geographia, Airone, BBC wildlife, Dive, Focus, Il Subacqueo, L'illustré, Marine Diver, Newland, Galatea, Mer & Océan, Ocean realm, Panorama TravelTauchen , Unterwasser.
In the last years he dedicate his attention to unusual places, out from the common destination, like Antarctica, Arctic and the Aldabra atoll. He prefers to dedicate himself to faraway destinations and/or with difficult environmental conditions, to contribute to widen one's knowledge of the sixth continent has to offer us.

In his pictures he tries to pass the same emotion that he had when he was shooting, alternatively he tries to create a pathos evocative, interpreting the image from his point of view. To obtain good results, he pays lots of attention to all parameters that compose the image: shapes, colours, composition, but above all, the light.

One of the Sperm whale images Franco took last year in Azores has been selected as a winner in the OCEAN VIEWS 2008 PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION. The photograph is displayed in an exhibitionis at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. The world’s preeminent museum and research complex.
The 2008 Nature's Best Photography Magazine Windland Smith Rice OCEAN VIEWS Exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, is on display from June 11 through November 2008. Through the stories that these photographs tell, visitors will gain insight into ocean life and hopefully become motivated to protect this fragile world.
Achievements

= Canon Professional network; cpn.canon-europe.com/content/btl/banfi.do
= BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year – Highly commanded: Underwater 1993,
= Portrait 2001, World in our hands 2004
= Trophy for the Grand Master of Underwater Photography 1999 Birmingham
= World Champion in underwater photography 1992 Cuba
= Some awards Underwater Festival at Antibes

Professional Marine and Wildlife Photographer Amos Nachoum has led National Geographic expedition teams with Dr. Eugenie Clark, Dr. Sylvia Earle, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and has co-produced documentaries with Stan Waterman. He was the team leader for National Geographic’s Red Sea, Great White Shark, and November ’96 Killer Whale photo expeditions. Mr. Nachoum’s photos and essays have appeared in more than 500 publications in North America, Europe, and Japan, including National Geographic magazine, Ocean Realm, Island, Outside, Rodale’s Scuba Diving, Time, Life, The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Le Figaro, Terra Sauvage, Airone, and Mondo Somerso.

In addition, his work has been included in the books The Living Ocean, Oceans, and The World of Nature. He has been profiled in television appearances on National Geographic Explorer (Sept. ’97), the Today Show, and Good Morning America, as well as in People, Esquire, and Money magazines.
In 1988 he won Nikon’s underwater photography contest and in 1993, the Communication Arts Award. He is currently an instructor on the Nikonos team of professional photographers and also conducts his own SLR and advanced u/w photo seminars.
After spending three years circumnavigating the globe, Amos co-founded Israel’s Marine National Park on the Red Sea. In 1978 he established La Mer Diving Seafari Inc, a New York-based adventure-travel company that brought North American divers to some of the most pristine and exotic underwater locations on the planet, from the Galapagos Islands to the Maldives, from Papua New Guinea to Madagascar and the Red Sea. In the course of directing these operations he has become an expert at working in partnership with foreign governments and companies to bring divers to some of the most beautiful and little-visited parts of the underwater realm, with preservation of the environment's integrity foremost in every encounter.
Since 1992, Amos’s efforts have been focused on professional commercial and editorial photography for such clients as the Israeli office of tourism, Saba Island, the governments of Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil, and large private clients ranging from Apple, IBM, and Microsoft to The Discovery Channel, Armani, the Walt Disney corporation, and Colombia Pictures.
Arising from the belief that private individuals should have access to the same sights as governments and large corporations, Amos has developed the cutting-edge adventure-travel program Big Animals Photography Expeditions specifically to provide opportunities to observe, photograph, and interact with the most imposing inhabitants of the sea, such as great white sharks, killer whales, sperm and humpback whales, dolphins, and more. Only through such observation and interaction, Amos Nachoum believes, can people learn to truly understand and respect some of the most impressive citizens of our water planet.
Currently, he is working on a coffee table book of his photographs, a series of fine-art lithographs, a CD-ROM, and several television programs.

Magnus Elander, born 1946 and one of Sweden's top photographers. He was Awarded the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2003 and has published features and images in Swedish and international magazines and newspapers, e.g. National Geographic Magazine, Nordic and BBC Wildlife, Illustrered videnskab.
In cooperation with Staffan Widstrand he published two books Ajunngilaq – arctic moments and The Big Five, which has been awarded by World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF as ”Pandabook of the year” in 1994 and 2003.
He has previously worked on assignments for e.g. Swedish Aviation, WWF International, Swedish Polar Research Council, Swedish Maritime Administration and Cosmonova IMAX theater, Danish Polar Center, and Sirius Dog-sledge Patrol.
His work is exposed in several exhibitions in Sweden, Norway, Canada, Japan and Germany. The latest at the Cultural Center in Stockholm, was entitled ” Carnivores Alike”.
Magnus is one of the founders of a Visitor Center called ”The Scandinavian Big Five”. A 4,7 million USD project. Inaugurated in June 2005 by the King of Sweden.

On several of our trips we have the priviledge to travel with Paul Nicklen. National Geographic's top photographer and recently winner of the World Press Photo 2006 (Nature).
Paul grew up on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada where his family was the only non-Inuit families in a small settlement of 140 Inuit. The Inuit taught him how to survive in the Arctic, read the weather and, to be patient. As a kid, without television, radio, and computer games, he spent most of his time in the hills watching wildlife, weather and the light play shadow games across the landscape. At that young age, the seed to become a nature photographer was deeply planted.
He worked as a wildlife biologist for four years in the Northwest Territories and was fortunate enough to work on species as lynx, grizzly bears, bison, caribou and polar bears. A few years later he went on a three-month solo expedition into the high arctic to live on the open tundra with the bears, wolves and open sky. That trip helped him to confirm that he could better serve wildlife populations by becoming a nature photojournalist rather than being a biologist or just a wildlife photographer.

His goal is to continue bridging the gap between excellent scientific research and the public by producing stories for magazines such as National Geographic. Since 1994, he has published in hundreds of magazines around the world and had three stories recently appear in National Geographic Magazine, all working towards this common goal.
He recently published an article on Leopard Seals in Antarctica for National Geographic which was awarded for the World Press Photo 2006. Other achievements
2005: Pictures of the Year International (POYi):
Award of Excellence, (Arctic Science story).
2004: World Press Awards:
1st Place-Nature and Science Stories, (Atlantic Salmon story).
2004: Pictures of the Year International (POYi):
Third Place-Nature and Science Stories.
2000/2001: BG (BBC) Wildlife Photographer of the Year:
Four awards over two years.
2000: Natures Best: Specially Commended.

Mike was born on the Isle of Wight, England, and raised in Southampton, his home, just a stone’s throw from the once proud and largest passenger ship terminal in the world. His father, 47 years at sea, did little to discourage Mike’s dream, of sailing and exploring the four corners of the globe, and he was destined to spend the next 30 years at sea, both sailing its surface and exploring the depths below.

His travels have taken him to most countries around the world, he has dived in almost every sea, and worked as expeditionary staff on such ships as the Lindblad Explorer, World Discoverer, M.V. Yao Hua, (China’s flag ship) and cruise directed on both small and large luxury cruise liners. In between, Mikes recreational hobby for scuba diving, unintentionally led him to a career as a deep-sea commercial diver, working in the murky seas off Bombay, to the storm ravaged channels of the North Sea. After ten adventurous, but stressful years, he left to captain his own 60’ charter boat along the inland waters of British Columbia. Five years later, Mike returned to expedition and regular cruising and cruise directed, such mega yachts as ’Sea Goddess’ and ’Renaissance’, sailing the icy, spectacular waters of Alaska and Antarctica, to the emerald seas of the South Pacific and beyond. In between cruising, Mike sailed extensively the east coast of the USA in his own vessel, and has traversed the Indian Ocean, from north to south. He continues his sport diving, together with all members of his family, and is continually in search of new challenging dive areas worldwide.

Mike is one of the worlds most experienced Polar Dive Masters in the Arctic and Antarctica and has explored the underwater ice-world of the Polar regions, diving beneath ice-caps and icebergs. He is also actively involved in planning and the techniques of the dive operation, and we are very proud to have Mike in our team during the Waterproof Expeditions dive trips in both Arctic and Antarctica.

Peter Szyszka is among the elite of diving professionals worldwide having achieved Instructor Trainer status with 6 training agencies - PADI Course Director, TDI Instructor Trainer for all courses including Trimix, DSAT Trimix Instructor Trainer, DAN Instructor Trainer in Oxygen Provision, Emergency First Response Instructor Trainer and Instructor Trainer for IAHD (International Association of Handicapped Divers).

Hailing originally from Poland, Peter is now resident in Australia, having emigrated 17 years ago. He is one of the most sought after instructors in Asia Pacific but this demand is not solely due to his impressive qualifications. He has a gift for training, an extensive knowledge in all areas of diving and a passion for this sport that inspires all who come in contact with him.

His resume stands at more than 1000 diving certifications, with more than 150 of these at instructor level.
Peter is certified to service over 13 brands of scuba equipment and has an extensive knowledge of, and experience in equipment configuration including rebreathers, oxygen cleaning and gas blending.

Not only are Peter's teaching and other qualifications impressive, but also his diving experiences. He is a passionate wreck diver, particularly deep wrecks. Peter has dived on all 7 Continents and 32 countries around the world to depths past 120 meters in all conditions and water temperatures.
With Peter in our team we are certain that our dive operation will run smooth and safe.

Jonas started his scuba diving “career” in the mid 80’s when he joined a local UW-rugby club in his hometown in the northern part of Sweden. The interest for water sports and diving grew stronger and 1990 he did his PADI Open Water Diver course. He continued his education and in 1994 he became a professional diver. From 1994 and onward he has worked as a scuba diving instructor/dive guide at different dive operators all over the world, i.e. Cyprus, Egypt, Thailand, Croatia, Malta, Sweden, Norway and Antarctica.

Since 1997/98 he holds the instructor rating of PADI Master Instructor and PADI IDC Staff. He is also an instructor for ANDI (American Nitrox Divers International), PADI TecRec and IAHD (International Association for Handicapped Divers) and is a diving instructor in 21 specialty areas (i.e. dry suit, re-breather, ice diving, nitrox, navigation and deep diving). With over 1000 student diving certifications he is used to handling inexperienced divers in a number of different diving activities and environments, new or familiar to the students and/or customers.

Between the years 2001 and 2006 he owned and managed Gävle Dykarskola (in his hometown Gävle in Sweden) which was a complete PADI 5-star, ANDI and IAHD dive center with a full service center, dive-boat operation, dive shop and organized trips, boat excursions and courses at different locations inside and outside of Sweden. He holds an international professional Coastal Master and is also certified and has knowledge and experience to service over 8 brands of scuba equipment, oxygen cleaning and gas blending.

As a PADI Emergency First Response/Medic First Aid instructor (since 1997) and an instructor for the Swedish CPR educational Association he regularly trains Rescue Diver and CPR/First Aid courses including the use of Automatic External Defibrillators and oxygen treatment which also comes in handy at his part-time job as a lifeguard in Sweden.

When he is not working with diving or as an expedition guide in the Antarctica or the Arctic he seeks adventure elsewhere like climbing Kilimanjaro, photography, marathon running, motorcycling or paragliding or ski-competitions in Greenland.

Francois has a Master degree in marine biology (ecotoxicology) and has many years of experience as a dive guide/ naturalist in Antarctica, Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Spitsbergen. He was a biology teacher in High school. He sailed around the world twice and participated in many international sailing competitions.

As an experienced (underwater) cameraman he participated in a number of wildlife documentaries, amongst others:

2008 Director and cameraman: “A winter in Kerguelen”. 32min for France 3 and TV5.
2007 Underwater cameraman: “Saved by the seals” 52min for France 5 and Animal Planet.
2007 Cameraman topside and underwater for a deep diving expedition in the Patagonian channels.
2006 Director : “Fur Seals, the dark side”, 52 minutes for Arte and Discovery Channel.
Cameraman Super 16mm : “The White Planet” Cinema.
2004 Cameraman Super 16mm: “Face to face with polar bear”. 52minutes for Canal+ and Animal planet. Spitzbergen/Svalbard. (Next expedition for this doc in august).
2004 Underwater cameraman: “The March of the Pinguin”. Cinema (Buena Vista/Disney). Antarctica.
2003 Cameraman underwater and topside: “The Sign of Snake”. 52 minutes for France5 and Discovery Channel. New Caledonia and China.
2003 Underwater cameraman: “Titans”. 52 minutes for Canal+ and National geographic. Azores archipelago. (Sperm whales)
2002 Assistant director: “Leopard seal, Lord of the Ice”. 52 minutes for Canal+ and National Geographic. Antarctique.
2000-2001 Producer assistant and editor
1999 Director and cameraman: “Men at Sea”. 42 minutes for france3. Atlantic Ocean. (tuna fishermen)

Jamie has worked in a variety of marine fields. He is currently working part of the year as a fisheries consultant and researcher, working on offshore fisheries management, research cruises, observer programmes and illegal fishing issues, and the rest of the year as an assistant expedition leader, marine biology and climate change lecturer, logistics coordinator and zodiac driver on expedition vessels working in the Antarctic and Arctic regions.

Recently he completed a two year posting as a fisheries scientist for the British Antarctic Survey on the remote subantarctic island of South Georgia. His job on the island was widely varied, including anything from writing scientific papers (two papers published), to aging, diet analysis and plankton work, to creating the identification guides used by fisheries observers, to giving presentations on marine life and fisheries work to visitors. The job allowed and required total immersion in all aspects of Southern Ocean ecology. The two year posting on an isolated island (year round population 13 people and several million seals and penguins), included everything involved in keeping the base running and being part of a small base community.

His passion is marine life, and he is a published author, most recently in BBC Wildlife magazine, but in a variety of media ranging from the new Ocean Geographic magazine to scientific papers and of two chapters, on marine organisms and ecology zones, in a textbook for 16 year olds. He has created a marine life course, adaptable from college level downwards.

He is also a keen wildlife and underwater photographer, and illustrator. He has photographs, (including the BAS Calendar), illustrations, scientific papers, identification guides and species lists published.

He is an experienced SCUBA Instructor, with PADI MSDT rating and over 1200 dives logged all over the world.

Jonathan Lives in Mullagh, County Cavan, IRELAND.
Cousin of the Irish Kildare born Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. He is the family historian for the Irish Shackletons, whose ancestor founded a Quaker school in Ballitore, County Kildare in 1726.
He is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin in Natural Sciences and was awarded his Masters Degree from Ohio State University for work in Arctic Alaska.
As a lecturer and guide, Jonathan has accompanied 21 groups to the Antarctic in the past 10 years as historian, guide, photographer and occasional Zodiac driver. Highlights of his visits have been landing on the godforsaken Elephant Island at Point Wild, visiting Ernest Shackleton's grave on South Georgia, travelling to the Ross Sea, landing at Cape Adare and visiting two of the largest Emperor penguin colonies in the world. He continues to visit the Antarctica regularily.
He has been involved in many Shackleton activities including films, TV documentaries, television and radio interviews, exhibitions and has given many talks in Antarctica, Canada, England, Ireland (including schools), Tasmania and the United States.
He acted as Consultant to Sir Ranulph Fiennes for his recent biography "Captain Scott".
He is also very proud to have led a group of Irish students to the Antarctic in 2001 the first group of students from Ireland or Europe to visit Antarctica.
Jonathan owns one of the sledges that Ernest Shackleton took on his "Nimrod" expedition in 1907-1909.
He has written a book with John MacKenna "Shackleton - An Irishman in Antarctica" about Ernest Shackleton with emphasis on the Shackleton family and the explorer's Irish background. It was published in 2002 (reprinted 2002, revised edition 2003) by Lilliput Press, Dublin, Ireland and University of Wisconsin Press in the USA. He was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London.