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Dr. Alexander Mustard
 Charlotte:
What's your favourite subject to photograph/film and why?
Alexander: Cue cliché answer: the next one! Sorry. A longstanding favourite is SEX. Each year I go to the Red Sea for a week at the start of July because it is a great time to see reef fishes reproducing (over the last three years I have seen more than 40 species mating or courting - such as the pair of hogfish on a spawning rise (see left). Spawning behaviour is remarkably common on the reef, but so many divers swim straight passed that photos are rare. I guess it is also heart-warming in these environmentally troubled times to see the birth of the next generation of reef life.
When sex has not been on my mind, I have also been working on a personal project of photographing the sea surface in different moods. Which I guess is my current squeeze.
Charlotte:
Can our readers find your photography anywhere else on the Net?
Alexander: There are two places I will promote. One is Underwater Photography Magazine and the other is my own coral reef ecology site.
Charlotte:
We're in the digital age now. You're not using digital cameras yet?
 Alexander: I am! Last night I had my D100 in the pool for the first time, and it was in the lake at the weekend. The lake was iced over so I only ventured in wearing Wellington boots! I had to break the ice to get the camera underwater. (The D100 is a digital SLR made by Nikon).
Digital is the future. There will be no stopping it. But the megapixels are still a bit short to make film redundant for everything. At the moment digital interests me for what it can do that film can't, such as white balance control, rather than as a replacement for film.
Curiously, I am just as interested in stepping back in time by using a completely manual medium format film Hasselblad. Scanned, the film from that camera is the equivalent of 350 megapixels! (The shark picture to the right was taken with the Hasselblad).
Charlotte:
Anything else you would like to share with us regarding upcomming projects you are working on?
Alexander: I haven't been in the sea since August and I have nothing planned until after Easter. It is particularly frustrating sitting on the sidelines because in my mind my photography is still improving with every vacation I take! I have so many ideas I want to try out. So my main project for the future is to get wet!
 Thank you Alexander!
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