Its a law of photography....

[Capel diver]

Have you ever noticed in the water as well as on land.....the good photo opportunities occur when you don't have your camera handy.

Yesterday I was in Leybourne Lakes in Kent. Our club uses these 8m lakes for training. I was in with a trainee and so didn't gave my camera with me. It was very clear and bright, perhaps 5m viz. I swam around a car and came face to face with a pike and a tench, side by side. They stared at me for sometime before leaving in different directions.

It would have made a lovely photo!

It must be a law of photography.....

[TimIngmire]

Never, ever, ever dive without a camera - the wildlife know when you do it and just do things to tease you Fish in particular are well known b*****rds for it.

Having said that I broke the same rule today - but then it was a slightly deeper wreck I was diving and was loaded with 2 stages so adding a camera was probably asking for trouble. Didn't miss anything tho - no basking sharks or dolphins or anything like that - so, a lucky escape.

[Cussy]

It's not just when you don't dive with your camera. I've done about 80 odd dives in Stoney Cove. I'd heard stories of the huge carp from a few people and as I'd done 40ish dives in there by then I thought it must be narcosis or just exageration. On one dive to the far side with my old faithful nikonos I finally got to see it. My buddy had been my model next to the old wooden wreck and I'd taken a few decent shots, then we saw it - so it does exist. It saw us and paused, so I wound my camera on only for it to go half way as I'd finished the film. Typical.

This kind of disaster hasn't been confined to analogue photography. During Aprils? challenge to photo green rays I decided to take camera in on dive one and typically the sun went in. I'd filled my SM card and batteries were low, so it didn't go in dive 2 - rays everywhere.

I think that there will always be the ones that get away, I just hope to shoot a few of them. The luck evens out over time.

[Jules]

Yep, prime example of this in St abbs last weekend. Didnt take my camera in on day one because i was using my new lovely beautiful purple Otter Brittanic (gawn bless Divers warehouse) suit. for the first time.

The cutest Curled octopus swam past us. sat on a rock waiting for us to catch up. Changed colour a few times, did a few little shimmies as if to say " i Am a darling little octopus, take my picture" sat posing for ages and eventually only swam off once there were half a dozen divers sitting there watching it. oh well!

[Pete]

On more than one occasion...the last one was two weeks back, helping out the LDS. I didn´t take my camera as I was to play the missing diver during a rescue course. The weather turned so the instructor decided that we would just enjoy a gentle shore dive...I came across the first Sea Hare I had ever seen, and this on a site I have dived weekly for the past two years. The bugger was huge and beautiful, and almost 25cm long.
I can only say...I was gutted. As I looked at my buddy, my expression said all I was thinking.