How long have you been photographing?
I began taking photographs in 2006 during a trip in Kenya. Just for pleasure to take good pictures.
According to your blog, you started scuba diving in 2008. What was it that made you keep on diving?
When I saw the amazing underwater world, it was like a revelation. Nowadays, I'm aimed at freediving to have a better interaction with the marine life and environment.
I actually found your work through the Green Lake YouTube video you made of that trip. Was it something that you had planned for a long time? And how did you find out about that place?
By chance I received an e-mail with series of pictures of different places of the world. One of this showed a bench under the water. This picture was not very beautiful but the situation was amazing. I made a lot of search to find information about this place. I needed more than one year to prepare for this trip to be sure to be there on right time - to have enough water and nice weather.
Austria's Green Lake - diving into another world
What is the best picture you like the most of that location and why?
My favorite is the one with over-under landscape because it was a real technical challenge to do that and I needed 3 days to succeed.
It looks like a photographer's paradise. How many days have you spent there?
I stayed there for 7 days. But it was not every day a paradise. During few days we had a very bad weather condition. And when you have sun, every time the water is very cold (only 5-7°C). After one hour spending underwater, you feel no longer your hand. But it’s really beautiful place with incredible colors and lights.
Any tip for those who'd like to pay the Green Lake a visit?
During the spring, this website http://www.tragoess-gruenersee.at/ indicates the water level. It’s the most important information you need before going there. For the divers, it’s better to have a drysuit. You can refill your tank near the lake. You can find a dive center at “BrückAn Der Mur” about 23km before the Green Lake.
What camera gear do you use?
I use a Canon 5D Mark II and a Sigma lens 15mm fisheye f2.8 in a Subal Underwater housing. For those pictures, I worked only in natural light.
What would you like people to see when looking at your photographs?
When I take pictures, I want not to show an image but the emotion I feel.
You placed third in the 2014 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest with one of the Green Lake shots. Is this your biggest achievement so far?
Yes. I have already won some prices in few contest in Switzerland and in Spain. But the "NG" contest is for me a world reference in photography.
The National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest's judges were mainly impressed by the hiking trail at the bottom of the lake. Why did you choose this photograph to compete with, there must have been tons of others that would make them realize it's not an ordinary lake?
When they looked at this picture, a lot of my friend said : “It’s a fake or a Photoshop effect. It’s impossible to have a tree and grass with a diver together at the same picture…”. Then I realized this picture was very special, and now I’m sure it is.
this is the photograph that earned Marc the rep
What other unique underwater locations would you like to cross of your bucket list next? And where people can see your work? Do you have an atelier?
I don’t have an atelier but you can see my photographic work on my website www.nitrogenic.com or on my facebook page. This year I hope to open and develop my freediving school in Switzerland. I will try to take amazing underwater pictures in my country. I have also a project to go in the cold water of Norway but it's not for sure yet.
Source: http://www.nitrogenic.com
