Alexander Benedik is an underwater filmmaker who is diving since 1998 and doing videos since 2008. In this interview Alex will tell us why he started with underwater filming and share with us some of his best experiences while shooting in remote locations like Alaska and Antarctica. You can learn more from him and discover what it is that has pushed him to start diving and doing these amazing underwater videos.
Alex: After 10 years of scuba diving I have started my underwater video career. In those ten years I had many of exciting and once in a life time experiences underwater. The key moment to start underwater video was in Bali 2007. I was alone on 5 meters with a dozen of very relaxed Bumphead Parrotfish that swam close around me for 10 minutes or more. The dive buddy with the camera was out of sight, so no one was there to capture this unique scenery.
Still in Bali I grabbed a German underwater magazine and did some research on video housings. Three weeks later I bought my first housing on a water sport convention in Vienna, Austria.
Alex: Good fellows of mine had a scuba license. I spent a vacation with them at Dominican Republic. They went for scuba and I was alone on the beach. It was really boring lying on the beach. For me it’s a waste of time. So I booked a scuba course. From that moment scuba became an obsession.
Alex: For this question I have to make a big swing. I was very lucky to meet an Austrian underwater photographer on an Egypt live aboard in 2002 or 2003. He is a really macro and critters specialist. He showed me some of his pictures. Until that time I had no clue about what you can really find underwater – if you have a closer look. Usually people see colored fish, corals and that’s it. We both share the same underwater interests, so we travel and choose our dive spots and dive vacations together since then. Only the cold water regions, like Antarctica, Iceland, Alaska, I dived without him.
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