Eyemouth photographer has spent a lifetime uncovering the mysteries of the underwater world
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Lawson Wood has spent a lifetime uncovering the mysteries of the underwater world.
His stunning photography and commitment to the coast has helped to put Eyemouth on the map for those who love nature.
Lawson grew up a stones throw from the beach and found the water calling him from a young age.
He said: "The house was between the school and the beach but inevitably I would just go straight to the beach before I headed home. I would do all of the usual things, getting my feet and my socks wet and then I would go home and get a hiding from my mum. That would be for getting wet again and she would tell me off and say home first and then the beach.
“Where Eyemouth is, it is just the absolute perfect playground. I guess it was there I started to get my appreciation for the marine life, not just the stuff that got washed up on the beach after a storm. I could never understand why after a massive storm why they were all still alive and swimming and I couldn’t quite get my head around it.
"Little by little I explored more and more. I learned to swim in the sea and I started snorkelling. When I was 11 I got my first taste of going underwater doing scuba. I could now swim with the fishes."
Lawson has dived all around the world, photographing sea creatures of all shapes and sizes.
He said: “You may not have the subject there that you have originally gone in to photograph.
"If it swims away from you then it doesn’t really have any strong defence mechanisms and you are much more larger than it is. That means it is scared and it will swim away. If it stays still then that means it does have a defence mechanism. That may be big sharp teeth, poisonous spines across its back, or whether it thinks its camouflage is so perfect there is no chance you are ever going to see it in the first place.
"What you have to appreciate is that you are moving in the water and the water itself is also moving. You are under pressure physically and mentally knowing that you are totally reliant on your equipment to give you enough air to do what you need to do."
He has photographed and written books about sea life in the Caribbean, Red Sea, Indonesia and lots more.
Lawson says he is just as inspired from the Berwickshire coast and he hopes his photos can show others what is thriving below the surface.
He said: “For all the people that swim along the top and you see a shadow underneath, Hollywood has done a wonderful job of making us all scared of what you can’t see. Once you put a mask and a snorkel on and you go down there then you can see that there isn’t anything threatening.
“More than anything I am always amazed at the amount of colour found in these waters. You used to think you would only find those colours in a tropical coral reef but there is way more colour here than in any tropical ocean. There are more colourful creatures, more diversity in these colder waters than there is anywhere else."
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