Introducing Nur Tucker! Nur is an accomplished photographer both above and below the waterline. Originally from Turkey, she now resides in London with her husband and two children. Nur has honed her photography skills on land by attending equine photography trips around the world including Portugal, Spain, France, Iceland, and the USA. Her stunning photos of the wild Camargue horses in France are exceptionally beautiful. Nur’s underwater photographs are equally breathtaking. It seems she has a talent for pulling the shutter in just the right way as she is limited only by her imagination.
Nur started working as an economist in London in 1992, but just six years later she learned to dive. As all of us who are divers know, that is where her story really begins. While on holiday in the Maldives, she enrolled in an advanced open water PADI course and the instructor brought a simple point and shoot camera on the dive. Though his objective was to emphasize buoyancy, Nur became interested in the camera and borrowed it for a few shots. When the film was developed, she was chuffed. There were fish and there was color and the subjects were clear and in focus. She could not believe it! Of course, now she says she would be totally embarrassed if anyone were to see the poor quality of those first photos.
Everyone has a place where they start, though, and when Nur came back from her trip, she saw an advertisement in a camera shop for an underwater photography pool workshop by Martin Edge. She enrolled in the two-day session which consisted of some classroom time followed by a pool session. She said, “I will never forget how Martin taught me the first things such as the negative space, reduce the column of water, look up, etc. These were essential.”
Now her kit includes a Nikon D500 in Subal housing which she loves. She uses Inon Z240 strobes and various lenses including a Tokina 10-17mm fish eye lens, Nikon 10.5mm lens, 105mm Nikon Macro lens, 60mm Nikon lens, and 100mm Trioplan manual lens. In addition she has SUPE video lights, Subsea +5 and +10 diopters and she loves using various torches for both macro and wide-angle photography.
Later, after Nur left her full-time work, she found she had more time on her hands, so she joined Alex Mustard in Raja Ampat for a workshop and that is where her serious learning began. She gives Alex credit for his skills as an educator saying, “Alex is an amazing teacher” as many underwater photographers can attest.
When asked if she has a favorite location in the world for underwater photography Nur said, “It is very hard to come up with one location, the world offers a big number of beautiful sites and they are all different. I usually chose the location depending on the genre of photography that I intend to do. I join various workshops that are of interest to me. If the subject matter is macro or super-macro, I like to go to Philippines or Indonesia, Caribbean is great for wide angle photography due to its super visibility and low currents and beautiful sponges. Red Sea offers a spectrum of opportunities as it has wrecks, sharks, beautiful corals and schools of fish. I particularly enjoyed a trip to La Paz in Mexico where I photographed cute sea lions. I also enjoyed every second of being in Raja Ampat during a live aboard trip.”
Nur also enjoys shooting in different styles. She loves both macro and wide-angle photography. She has even dabbled with shooting models in a pool. For this, her daughter has served as her model. Nur’s enthusiasm for all types of photography may be the reason she has developed so much creativity. That creativity has earned her some prestigious awards.
Nur was crowned the “Most Promising British Underwater Photographer of the Year” in 2020 by UPY, one of the most esteemed competitions in the world. She is understandably very happy and proud to have her beautiful and creative image of a seahorse win this competition. In addition to this award, Nur has won runner up places for two years in a row in Ocean Geographic Color Prints category, won the DIVER Magazine overseas category, the BSOUP black and white category, and various other competitions.
One of Nur’s favorite pieces of equipment is her trioplan lens because of the amazing bokeh it creates. She loves bokeh in the background, and this lens creates great “soap bubbles” but, she says, it comes at a price. The technology is old, so the lens is not as sharp as some of the newer lenses. She has spent lots of time learning her equipment, so it is natural that her advice to other photographers is to learn your camera and housing inside and out before diving with them. “Using your equipment should be like second nature to you. Also, learning the basic rules such as exposure, shutter speed, ISO and what they do, and how you change them to get a desired effect.” She also recommends creating your own technique rather than copying what other photographers are doing.
This advice has served Nur well as she has taken it herself. She always tries to do something that no one has done before, which is hard, because whatever you think of….it has been done. But being self-critical has served her well, too. Entering competitions helped her improve her photography because she had to learn how to look at her images with a critical eye.
It is fitting that Nur was awarded for her seahorse image. She has felt challenged by horses both above and below the water waterline. Last year after spending two weeks diving and doing macro photography in the Philippines, she discovered she had dissected an artery (no one knows how it happened.) Luckily, she is still alive and well and super happy to hear that her Thorny sea horse image, which she made while on that trip, won her an award. And true to the risks that many of us take for our photography, she says “It was worth it!”
You can see more of Nur’s work on her website at www.nurtucker.com
Or visit her social profiles at Instagram.com/nurtuckerphotography Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NurTucker/ and LinkedIn Nur Tucker
If you would like to be featured as an under water photographer, please email waterdogphotography@gmail.com and request more info. We are looking forward to seeing some great work on this page!
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