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Featured diver No4 US Wreck Photographer
Brad Sheard on Photographing shipwrecks worldwide.
Photographs by Leigh
Bishop unless stated
| Brad Sheard made his first wreck dive off Long
Island back in 1977 since then a passion for shipwreck exploration
has led him to all corners of the globe. His extensive knowledge
of shipwrecks is made obvious through his published work and
creative ability to photograph shipwrecks. In the first of a
our US wreck diver interviews Brad Sheard gives the answers
to some of his adventures that span two and a half decades,
he talks of his published material as well as his photographic
techniques. Keeping himself away from typical diving politics
and bullshit Brad continues to enjoy diving with his old Atlantic
wreck diving friends as well as making new friends through his
worldwide travels. Many people claim to have been pioneers during
the offset of deep wreck diving, although those that make such
claims are never remembered by those that were there. Brad Sheard
was! Other than the odd salmon spotting Sheard is a wreck diver
through and through and his involvement in early US deep wreck
diving was an inspiration to many today. |
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| I first heard of Brad Sheard through Simon Tapson founder
of the Starfish Enterprise deep wreck diving team. Tapson was
always one step ahead of his team members and was the first
to own a copy of Sheard's first book, still to this day that
book remains the best adventure diving book each member of the
team has ever read. From 'Beyond Sport Diving' to 'Lost Voyages'
Sheard's next volume is surely one to watch out for until then
enjoy a small deepimage interview with one of the most outstanding
shipwreck image-makers from the last two decades. |
Interview:-
Photo Mike Cross |
DI; How long have you been diving
brad?
BS; Quite a while
ago now it was 1977 if I recall I was into ships and the sea
as well as wanting to dive as a kid. I had persuaded some friends
to take it up with me and I remember cycling to our next town
to sign up but they wouldn’t let me as I was only 12 years
old and I didn’t have my parents with me.
DI; From your work its appears you’re
a wreck diver more so than any other specialized area.
BS; That’s
right I spent the first 20 years exploring wrecks and dived
nothing else really until I moved to Seattle, there was not
much else to do there other than photograph marine life which
was a nice change. I still dive wrecks now although the little
break photographing fish was rather interesting.
DI; You talk of photography and your books
are full of your own photographic work. Why did you decide
to take the stills photography route?
BS; I started
taking images on a borrowed Nikonos in 1980 and from then
on I'm completely self taught. I later brought a Nik 4. Now
I never enter the water without my camera, to be honest I
think I would be lost underwater without it.
DI; You say you lived in Seattle US for a while
and moved back where do you live now.
BS; I’m
now back in Ellicott City just outside Baltimore Maryland.
DI; Are you married at all?
BS; No however I do live with my long term partner Theano.
DI; How do you make your living not from
diving is it.
BS; No of course
not diving is just my favorite pastime, no I work as a stress
analysis design engineer in military aircraft.
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DI; Do you have a favorite shipwreck
that springs to mind.
BS; All wrecks
are different and I just love any wreck where there is some
quality Visibility like those in North Carolina. I suppose the
Italian liner Andrea Doria off the east US coast is a kind of
favorite, I first went to the site in 1984 with the Atlantic
wreck divers on a small boat, there was only 6 of us that squeezed
on board that particular trip.
DI; Did you use mixed gas on the wreck back
then.
BS; Back in 84
we used air although as the Atlantic wreck divers began to use
gas in the late 80’s I did quite a few trimix dives myself.
It was quite exciting then as we were advancing on the early
days of east coast diving. These days I don’t get round
to a lot of gas diving just air really, neither have I transferred
to closed circuit I still love my trusty original scuba gear.
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See a collection of images by Brad Sheard
here
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DI; What’s with closed circuit then.
BS; Don’t
like the sound of it although I must say the principal of rebreathers
is great, I get a thing about the failure points that scare
me. Too much Co2 and you die too much O2 and you die, too little
O2 and you die that’s not good is it. I have to say that
what you guys in England are doing with the breathers at depth
is amazing and I hope you keep reporting your achievements on
deep image. I also subscribe to your UK magazines Diver &
990 so get to read about all your adventures as well.
DI; so other than the Doria where else have
you been diving wrecks.
BS; Most of my
diving has been on the wrecks along the east coast with my pals
from the Atlantic wreck divers although my travels have taken
me to Europe a lot and the English channel where I explored
U-boats. I have also been to the wrecks of Jutland with Chris
Hutchison and the Starfish Enterprise guys, I been to Narvik,
Malta, Truk, Palau, Malaysia I’ve also been to the prince
of Wales and repulse in the South China seas and I will never
forget the fantastic dives at Bikini Atoll. Oh yea I nearly
forgot I was also on Mike Borings 2003 Wilhelm Gustloff expedition
in the Baltic Sea Poland. |
DI; Some interesting places then
do they take a specific trend or just trips that have cropped
up.
BS; your fishing
here aren’t you, well if you must know yes I target specific
locations for a book I happen to be working on.
DI; you just said you travelled to England
to explore U-boats have you ever heard of a geezer called
Innes McCartney?
BS; Yeah of
course he’s real famous back in the states we were quite
lucky as he lived in the US for a while so we enjoyed his
company for a number of years. That’s when we first
introduced him to his first U-boat the U-who identified as
the U-869 by John Chatterton and Richie Kholar.
DI; Marmite Brad what about that you either
like it or hate it?
BS; Hate the fuckin
stuff anyway what sort of stupid question is that?
DI; Other than
diving do you participate in any other sports or pastimes.
BS; Love sea
Kayaking I also like hiking and I enjoyed snorkeling with
Salmon in Seattle but I do cycle a lot mainly to keep fit.
DI; Do you have a certain dive partner you
always dive with.
BS; No specific
dive partner as such I’ve dived with a lot of people
mainly as I’ve said the Atlantic wreck divers but if
I had to pinpoint anybody perhaps I’ve dived more so
with Jeff Pagano Pat Rooney and Richie Kholar.
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DI; You have some cool ambient light black
& white images in your second book ‘Lost Voyages’
do you prefer to shoot this type of image?
BS; I do have
a great love for Black & White photography and tend to shoot
that way a lot, if I’m shooting flash with the Nikon I
always have a Nikonos round my neck for the off chance ambient
image. I load it with Kodak Tmax fast 3200 print and often push
it to that shooting say 30th of a sec with the camera wedged
in a bit of wreck somewhere.
DI; Do you have a favorite image you have
shot.
BS; Yeah perhaps
the E.M Clarke image I shot is kind of cool I like that one
best, but some of my Medium format stuff from Truk is nice
as well.
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DI; You shoot medium format as well.
BS; Yeah that’s
right one I made myself a few years back when housings for them
were not really available. I have a Mamiya inside that housing
but it is big. I mainly shoot with a Nikon F90x in an Aquatica
housing same as you Leigh but as I say I also regularly use
the Nik 5.
DI; Your first book ‘Beyond Sport Diving’
what gave you the inspiration for that.
BS; Back in the
80’s we were doing all this Taboo diving deep air dives
with the Atlantic wreck divers and had some great adventures,
I just wanted others to share some of the times we had and thus
‘Beyond Sport Diving’ was written. I was not happy
with the images and how they
|
The wreck of the Nazi liner Wilhelm Gustloff
image© Brad Sheard 2003
Click
to enlarge |
| had been reproduced by the publishers in that book so I set
out intent on a more visual book and one in colour so with ‘Lost
Voyages’ I had the chance to tell stories of shipwrecks
their construction and talk of old ships through to new as well
as the U-boats that haunted our coastline. |
DI; so where do you go from here Brad.
BS; Well I will
continue to work on my third book how long it will take me
is your guess and I will defiantly take more pictures so I
don’t intend to slow down. I would like to go to the
Solomon Islands, New Guinea, back to the Pacific near Bikini
where loads of ww2 wrecks are sunk. Back to Europe and especially
those amazing wrecks you guys dive up in Northern Ireland.
DI; Have you any advice for anyone reading
this interview.
BS; Figure out
what your passions are and go out there and do it, you can
pretty much achieve anything you want.
DI; Cheers Brad and best luck for the future.
BS; Thanks.
© Leigh Bishop 2003
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Brad Sheard (left) with Leigh Bishop during
the Wilhelm Gustloff expedition in the
Baltic Sea May 2003. To find out more
about this expedition see the pages on
this site dedicated to the Wilhelm Gustloff.
Photo by Mike Cross
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Titles from Brad Sheard
Email Brad
here
'Lost Voyages' Two Centuries of shipwrecks
in the approaches to New York By Brad
Sheard Read more or buy this book
click
here
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'Beyond Sport' diving now out of print since
July 2002 available from antiquarian book stores |
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