Positive disruptions: Late diagnosed AuDHD, Fujifilm & ocean photography changed everything

The roots of this story sit long before I started exploring ocean photography with Fujifilm ever entered my world. They begin in Ramsgate, the coastline that raised me, where long summers were spent chasing waves and sunsets and my first job at thirteen was developing 35mm film in a newsagent darkroom. Every roll of film I developed helped me understand more about how to shoot and most of my wages went straight back into buying the next roll of film. That space to explore the world with the camera as a vehicle for curiosity, allowing me to process the world, connecting with place and image-making has been part of me ever since.

Yet for most of my adult life, one thing held me back from the water. I couldn’t travel on boats. I couldn’t even look at a choppy horizon without nausea rolling through me. Chronic motion sickness kept me landlocked, watching the sea from the edge rather than moving through it.

I never imagined that would change.

The diagnosis that became a doorway

In 2021, everything shifted. After years of intuitive knowing, I received an ADHD diagnosis. It clarified so many threads that had shaped my life, my work and the intensity with which I sense the world. Soon after, in 2022, new medication cured my motion sickness almost overnight. Later down along this journey of discovery, revealed my autism and I was diagnosed in 2024.

But rolling back to 2022, suddenly the barrier that had kept me from exploring the ocean dissolved. I could step onto a boat without feeling sick, sitting down on my SUP and start to kayak. I could finally explore the underwater world that had always called to me.

It was a positive disruption that rearranged my entire creative landscape. Opening a portal to places I never believed I’d access in this lifetime.

Enter Fujifilm, the second disruption

At the same time, I bought my first Fujifilm camera, the X-T2, with a Seafrogs housing. As I really wanted to explore ocean photography, our local coastline from beneath the surface. It felt intuitive, light and playful in a way my DSLR system never had. I took it into the tidal pool at Walpole Bay, simply curious about what lived just below the surface of the water I had grown up beside.

That first snorkel changed everything.

The moment my face dipped beneath the water, a whole world opened. Light fractured. Colours softened. Seaweed danced. Jellyfish drifted like ancient, quiet beings. I photographed what I saw and felt my nervous system drop into a different frequency. As I floated there weightless, sounds muffled and everything I could see was filling me with the biggest dopamine rush. I was in a new place but it was one that felt like home.

That was the beginning of ocean and underwater photography and later in 2022 Fujifilm released the X-T5. I contacted Seafrogs to see if they would be making a housing and they were. This was the beginning of a creative awakening that blended science, intuition and deep sensing. All shaped by my AuDHD brain and a camera system that allowed me to explore with ease.

Those two positive disruptions – my diagnosis and falling for the Fujifilm system – changed the trajectory of my life and the work I now bring into the world.

Ocean photography as a return to self

As I returned to the water again and again, my practice evolved beyond brand work into purpose-led visual storytelling rooted in connection with place, season and the intelligence of the natural world. Ocean and Underwater photography became an extension of how I sense subtlety, pattern and emotion. It also revealed how much I felt called to advocate for the ocean itself.

This deepening connection wtih the ocean felt like a calling. It was that calling evolved my voluntary work with Whale Wise, where I now serve as President of the Board. Fujifilm’s lightweight system makes it possible for me to capture a mix of photos and videos of whales, document research and fieldwork and amplify the incredible science in ways that resonate with hearts as much as minds. That partnership between camera, ocean and purpose is the heartbeat of my work.

Ocean photography has become a language, a devotion and a deepening of my commitment and mission to rewild our connection to nature.

How Fujifilm supports underwater and ocean photography

The Fujifilm X-T5 and the wider X series ecosystem have opened creative possibilities that feel tailor-made for the wild edges where I work.

A few reasons this system transformed my practice:

• Lightweight enough for long swims and field days: The X-T5 and Fujinon lenses allow full flexibility from macro to 600mm in my bag, my housing in my small carry on and it remains portable enough to carry safely across the wildest of edges, from tidal pools, to research vessels and remote coastlines.
• Colour science that mirrors what I feel underwater: Fujifilm’s rendering of blues, greens and low-contrast scenes feels organic, filmic and true to the emotional tone of the water.
• The X-T5’s resolving power: This gives astonishing detail for jellyfish, plankton blooms, reflections and dorsal fin IDs for science partners.
• Compatibility with Seafrogs housings: Accessible, durable and perfect for beginning and developing underwater and ocean photography with the Fujifilm X-T5.

The camera became more than a tool. It became a companion in the deepening of my creative identity.

From wild edges to purpose-led storytelling

Ocean photography expanded my life in unexpected ways. It led to conservation storytelling, a six-month solo National Trust exhibition, my voluntary role with Whale Wise, multidisciplinary work across earth, sea and sky, and invitations to educate, speak and teach others how to see the ocean through a more attuned lens.

These positive disruptions reshaped not only my work but my purpose.

They returned me to a place I had always belonged. Even when I could only stand on the shoreline dreaming of the water.

Feeling the call of the sea?

If the pull toward ocean photography is rising in us, the best place to begin is by immersing in the stories that live beneath the surface. The underwater world has shaped so much of my creative practice, from documenting jellyfish blooms in Iceland to working alongside Whale Wise on marine mammal research, and these experiences continue to guide how I teach and share this work.

For those curious to explore this path more deeply, my underwater photography page is an invitation to join me in that liminal space, filled with ocean stories, visual guidance and the practical foundations that support ethical, nature-led image making.

Wander through, let the water meet you where you are, and follow whatever thread of curiosity calls you.

→ Read more about why I moved my entire system to Fujifilm (and what it changed) here.

official fujifilm x-photographer 2026-present