A TRIBUTE TO SHANNON CONWAY –
Way back in the late 1990’s as new divers, we soon developed the urge to shoot images of what we were seeing in this exciting new world that we were beginning to explore.
To cut a long story short for conciseness and relevance, our desire to capture images of our burgeoning dive travels and experiences led us to book on one of Martin Edge’s overseas underwater photographic workshops, and it was in Bonaire back in 2002, at Captain Don’s “Diving Freedom” Resort, that we first met Shannon. It soon became obvious to us that he was already a very accomplished underwater photographer in his own right, and he won the 1st prize in the photo contest on that trip. We became friends on that visit and remained in touch thereafter.
For ourselves, we can’t really talk about Shannon without also talking about Martin, who as most underwater photographers will know has also sadly left us, passing away in 2024. Martin, of course, was a master craftsmen and educator in terms of his underwater photography, and became a very influential person in our lives, and as we would discover, also for Shannon.
Shannon and Martin became great friends, and in our minds, they are inextricably linked in terms of our immersion into the world of underwater photography. After meeting Shannon for the first time in Bonaire, we would also dive with him on other Martin-led group trips to the Kona Coast of Hawaii, Loloata Island off Papua New Guinea and Borneo’s Lankayan Island, all of which were excellent trips where we could enjoy learning from each other and sharing in our diving and underwater photography passion.
At some point during all this, Shannon and his wife Amanda moved to Freemantle in Western Australia, Shannon having sold the business he co-founded. This enabled him to pursue his missions of dive travel, underwater photography and adventure. He did that with gusto, and was always out there in world doing something interesting…
It was obvious that Shannon had a great talent for capturing underwater imagery, whether the subject matter was skittish pelagics, wide-angle vistas of reefs and wrecks, or close-up macro subjects, and over multiple trips he amassed a hugely impressive body of work.
Once he was settled in Australia, Shannon continued with his own personal diving projects, but in addition, began teaching students and organising his own group trips. His talent as a photographer, combined with his wider capabilities of managing and “making things happen” made these a great success, and he developed a big following among the underwater photographic community.
One of the group trips he arranged was to the Galapagos Islands, a special itinerary of ten days of liveaboard diving rather than the usual seven, thus giving more time to dive the remote Wolf and Darwin Islands for the pelagic action, and also allowing for a visit to a rarely visited area known for its’ abundance of Marine Iguanas. We had a fabulous trip, and we’re forever thankful to Shannon for ensuring that we were on it. It would turn out to be the last time we dived with him.
A few years after the Galapagos trip, Shannon had a serious medical situation that happened whilst he was exploring some submerged caves in a remote part of Australia. Thanks to his fellow dive explorers with whom he partnered on the trip, he was extracted from the water and taken to medical help. It would turn out that he’d suffered a brain bleed that would sadly result in him having to give up diving.
After he’d recovered sufficiently, he had to re-imagine his life without diving, and faced this new reality with stoicism and humour, and continued to travel to new places frequently. Unfortunately however, the issues surrounding his brain bleed in the Australian cave would never fully leave him, and was the reason for his incredibly sad and untimely passing at the age of 63.
We both enjoyed Shannon’s company immensely and as a spin-off of our friendship, we benefitted massively from Shannon’s knowledge, advice and common sense, both for improving our underwater photography skills and for life in general over the years, and for that we’re forever grateful.
He had an easy charisma and made friends easily, though he suffered no fools. He was quick-witted and straight talking, devoid of ego, talented, kind, and very much his own man.
We were lucky to see Shannon and Amanda when they visited the UK in June of this year, and had a really nice day with them in our Wiltshire hometown of Warminster, catching up on what had been happening in our lives, and making some open-ended plans to visit them in Australia at some point, maybe do a road trip or something. Nothing definite, but plans starting to form…
He will be very sadly missed by a many people, but never forgotten, and his legacy will live on in all the lives he touched.
We send our deepest condolences to his wife Amanda and his wider family.
With huge respect to our friend, who it’d been a pleasure to know.
Jeremy & Amanda Cuff
