Fiona Ayerst and Amanda Cotton: Two world-class underwater photographers.

Photo: Fiona Ayerst

The better an image, the less it needs to be explained....which is how I would describe Fiona Ayerst's photography.

Click here to enjoy Fiona's remarkable work.

Photo: Amanda Cotton

While Amanda Cotton is a highly talented and rigorously trained photographer, Fiona, a very successful ex-lawyer, became a self-taught photographer when she realized that an office job, no matter how demanding and rewarding financially, wasn't her thing in the long run.

Now, don't think that as an autodidact Fiona is less professional than Amanda - she is not!!

When I met Fiona for the first time in South Africa some two years ago, I could not believe how much photographic stuff she brought along for just ONE day of diving with the tiger sharks of Aliwal Shoal, and told her so. She, in turn, looked at my "equipment", a good old Nikonos V, with what I first thought was disdain but then she explained to me that although she began her new career with a Nikonos V she had to go digital as a pro.

Both Fiona and Amanda are award-winning photographers. I expect them to become two of the world's ten best underwater photographers in the not too distant future.

What is truly amazing, yet not surprising to me, is that both ladies developed into ardent shark conservationists as they began "shooting" sharks.

Since we already have so many "Sharkmen", I would love to see more "Sharkladies" that are cut of the same cloth as Amanda and Fiona.