My name is Marcel van Engelen. I’m now 60 years old and have been an avid diver for 21 years. I’ve also been doing underwater photography for the past 7 years.
On these pages, I’ll be sharing reports on my dives, as well as my adventures above water, and of course, I’ll be posting photos too!
So this site is still hard at work!
I have also involved myself in photography in a gray past. I started with a Praktica MTL3, a fully manual 35mm camera, equipped only with an exposure meter. In doing so, I had a 50mm and a 125mm lens. I used this camera mainly for landscapes and aircraft photography, especially the military aircraft. I did most of it in black and white, which gave the best results. Then came the first digital cameras. I couldn’t really do anything with this, so slowly photography disappeared from the picture.
But in its place came diving. I started in the Dominican Republic on my honeymoon. Received further training in the Netherlands. After I became Divemaster, training lay dormant for several years. Diving did continue, both in the Netherlands and in Dominican Republic, Egypt and Bali.
In 2015, I divorced and resumed training. From Normoxic (diving with helium) to Technical Full Cave diver. From Germany, Switzerland and France to all kinds of spots in the Netherlands, I made lots of dives for 3 years.
Meanwhile, I live with Shelley and after discussion, I then bought my first camera, an Olympus TG5. With this, I took the pictures from Bali and was proud of how it went there! A year later I bought the TG6 and eventually competed with it in the ONK Underwater Photography with Ronnies Tough team led by Ron Offermans. Unfortunately, it was not what we had hoped for.
Following that, I had the opportunity to upgrade my camera, the Olympus OMD E-M1 II. Because our vacation fell through, I was able to buy this camera. Therefore, all photos after July 1, 2020 were taken with this camera.
In September 2021, I once again participated in the ONK.
The results were impressive. Together with Sandra, Mieke, and Roy, we won the team competition, once again under Ron’s leadership.
In the individual competition, I finished in 4th place in the “Sweet” category.
So there’s been a significant improvement in my photos.
I signed up again in 2022. Unfortunately, due to illness and bad weather, my series for the Masters competition wasn’t up to par. My freshwater photo, on the other hand, was truly outstanding. The judges commented, “the best pike of the competition” and “I’d love to have this hanging on my wall.” Strangely enough, despite the glowing praise, they only ranked it 17th.
In 2024, we returned from Bali, and I sold all my cameras, underwater housings, and strobes, and started taking more and more photos above water. Diving has taken a back seat for now, so all the photos from the last two years have truly been taken above water. The cameras have since been replaced by two OMSystem 1 Mark 2 units.
I’m mainly interested in nature and night photography. People aren’t really my thing.
Birds, stars, the sun, the moon, and buildings, for example, appeal to me much more!
This was really a short introduction, but this will also be updated regularly with the new information!
Thank you for visiting my site!