There is beauty in everything. That’s the philosophy drilled into me during my early days of photography, some 12 years ago. In those days, my mentor would always say that if you looked hard enough at your subject, you inevitably begin to see it differently, even if it’s something you see every other day. This is the exact mindset that I bring to my diving, not just in my underwater photography, but to diving in general. And it is this same mindset that has allowed me to shine a new light on a diving destination that is dear to my heart, but so often over-looked by others.

As many will agree, diving is a sport that brings you to some of the most beautiful parts of our blue planet. But over time, certain places become more special to us than others, and we revisit those special places time and time again. This might be due to the beauty, accessibility, or affordability of the place. For those of us lucky enough to live near the sea, we develop a sort of home turf in our backyards that we turn to for a quick fix, whenever we get the urge to breathe some compressed air. For me, the beautiful island of Pulau Tioman is such a place. Just two hours drive from my home, and a short ferry ride off a nearby coast, Tioman means more to me than most of the other perhaps more well known scuba destinations in our region.