About Our Holiday Pix
By Jo and David Spinney
We are Jo (Joanne) and David Spinney. We are a Canadian (Jo), British (David) couple who lived in the UK until 2004, then Spain from 2004 until 2019 and we now live in Canada.
Our main hobbies are Scuba Diving, Photography and Travel.
We have built this website to share pictures of our experiences with our friends and families.
Most of our images are dive pictures, sometimes we take pictures of the large critters such as sharks and rays, but we mainly focus on macro life - creatures from 2 or 3 mm up to a few cms.
What We Carry
We each travel with 1x20 kg suitcase and 1x10 kg backpack.
In one side of each case we carry our BCD's, Regulators, Fins, Wetsuits, DSMB, Boots, Masks and Swimmers.
In the other side we carry our clothes, camera trays and arms, charging cables and travel converters, first aid kids and washbags.
In our backpacks we carry our cameras, laptops, strobes, lenses, housings, extra hard drives and lots of lithium batteries.
Jo Qualifications
Qualified as a Dive Master in November 2014
- Master Scuba Diver
- Deep Diver
- Enriched Air
- Rescue
- Peak Performance
- Wreck Diver
- Cavern Diver
- Boat Diver
- Night Diver
- Search and Recovery
- EFR
- Digital Underwater Photographer
David Qualifications
Qualified as a Master Scuba Diver in June 2014
- Deep Diver
- Enriched Air
- Rescue
- Peak Performance
- Wreck Diver
- Cavern Diver
- Boat Diver
- Night Diver
- Search and Recovery
- EFR
- Equipment Specialist
We always dive as buddies and help each other find life to photograph. (We always appreciate the help of local guides who can show us where the local fauna live.)
Our Dive Kit
To keep things simple, we both use the same equipment.
Aqualung i3 BCD's
AT40 Regulators
Aqualung Fins and Masks
Suunto D6i Computer - Jo
Shearwater Perdix Computer - David
Suunto D4i Computer - Backup
As most of diving is in warm water 28-30C we both dive using a rashvest and dive leggings (Jo), and Swimmers (David)
We both have knives attached to our BCD's and we carry a selection of torches.
We carry DSMB's, but to avoid confusion on the surface we rarely use them as the boat captains tend to know the markers of their guides.
Jo's Camera Kit
Current
Olympus OMD5
I use the standard 14-42mm lens, a Lumix 45mm Macro lens and a Olympus 60mm Macro lens.
2 Sea & Sea YS02 strobes.
My land pictures are taken on a Nikon D3200 or D5600 or my Samsung S25 phone.
Retired Kit
Used a Canon SX230 in the Estartit & Philippines 2014 pictures.
Used an Olympus Pen 5 and a Pen6 from April 2015 to March 2018.
In September 2016 I added 2 Sea and Sea YS01 strobes, a tray and 2 arms.
David's Camera Kit
Underwater photos were taken on a Canon SX230 between 2013 and 2016.
Land pictures are taken on a Nikon D3200/5600 or Samsung S23 Phone.
Im mid 2016 upgraded my underwater camera to a Olympus Tough TG4.
In 2018 I upgraded from my TG4 to a TG6 and added a tray and Sea & Sea YS01 strobe.
Our Travels
We are both keen travellers and love exploring new countries, both above and below the water.
Over the last few years we have visited:
Australia 2001 (David) 2007, 2019 & 2020
Austria 1974 (David)
Bahamas 2024
Belgium 1975, 1979 (David), 1999 & 2000
Cambodia 2019 (Non Diving)
Canada 2002, 2006 & 2017 (Non Diving)
The Canary Islands - Gran Canaria 2004
The Canary Islands - Fuerteventura 2015
The Canary Islands - Lanzarote 2016
The Canary Islands - Tenerife 2017
The Caribbean - Cruise Only 2024
China (Beijing) 2014
Denmark 1980 & 2010 (David)
Dubai 2020 (David)
Egypt 2018 & 2019 (Jo only)
Eire 1995 &2024 (David)
Fiji 2020
France 14 times between 1975 and 2017
Germany 1974, 1997, (David), 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013
Gibraltar 2006, 2007 & 2015
Greece 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992 (David) 2000
Indonesia 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 & 2024
Italy 1997, 2003
Kenya 2018 (Non Diving)
Malaysia 2017, 2018 & 2019
Maldives 2000 (David) & 2017
Malta 2014, 2015 & 2016
Mauritius 2018
Mozambique 2018
Netherlands 1975, 1979, 1999 (David), 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
Philippines 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020
Singapore (non diving) 1997, 2018, 2019 & 2023
South Africa 2018
Spain 2002, we lived and dived in Spain from 2004 - 2019
Switzerland 1995, 1997
Thailand 2016, 2017 & 2019
USA 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 & 2024
US Virgin Islands 2024
Vatican City 2003
3 of the 4 countries of the UK Many many times.