Back Yard to Bucket List: Keone Drew
Welcome to one of Scubaverse.com’s regular ongoing series, From Back Yard to Bucket List. Each month, we ask an underwater photographer to talk about their dives—local, favourite, and bucket list—and what makes them special. A personal insight into diving with a camera.
In our last edition, we had a macro dive spectacular, and this time we’re changing things ever so slightly and moving to the other side of the world to Asia, to meet Keone Drew, a diver who’s settled in the Caribbean.
But I’ll let him tell you about himself and his dives.
Don’t forget, if you would like to feature, then drop me a line at saeed.rashid@scubaverse.com.
Saeed
Keone Drew
I’ve always wanted to travel the world, to experience new cultures and learn new skills. When I left my corporate job to travel full-time, I had no clue where this journey would lead. After a few years exploring and diving in multiple countries and continents, I made the decision to move to Grenada to work as a scuba instructor.
My experience on the Spice Isle changed my life in the most profound way. My desire to introduce others to the underwater world quickly evolved into a dream to document and share the beauty of our marine world using photography, igniting a creative passion and unlocking my path towards becoming an underwater photographer.
Through my lens, I seek to capture more than a technically perfect shot. I aim to express the essence of a dive; whether it is the meditative calm of a shallow reef, the haunting beauty of a sunken shipwreck, or the raw, untamed emotions of its inhabitants.
My camera has become a tool for this deeper connection. A way to slow down, observe the intricate details most swim past, and share a sense of wonder for the ocean that inspires. This is a glimpse into my journey, framed by the warm waters of the Southern Caribbean that have shaped my artistic eye, from my local dive where this journey starts, to my favourite dive that just continues to offer creative magic, and a bucket list dive destination that inspires my ambitions as a photographer.
Local Dive: Flamingo Bay Reef, Grenada
Just minutes from Grenada’s iconic Grand Anse Beach, Flamingo Bay Reef is more than my local dive site; it’s my perpetual training ground. This vibrant, shallow reef, located at the edge of the Molinière-Beauséjour Marine Protected Area, is the catalyst for my journey as an underwater photographer. The countless hours spent exploring this site taught me the meaning of true observation and how to slow down to capture the brilliance of our seas; not just the vastness of open water, but intricate details that are often overlooked.
This reef is a bustling metropolis of marine flora and fauna, where schooling sergeant majors can be seen moving towards the surface, while stingrays burrow below the sand. The real ocean magic, however, happens on a macro scale. Named after the flamingo tongue sea snail, these macro critters can be spotted among coral fans and black sea rods. Looking more closely at sand contours and coral heads, you’d be lucky to find yellowheaded jawfish, camouflaged frogfish, giant green moray eels, and a variety of fish species and invertebrates.
What makes Flamingo Bay Reef truly special is more than its biodiversity or photographic potential; it is the relationship it demands. You cannot conquer this reef, nor arrive once and capture its essence. It reveals itself slowly, over years, through persistence, poor visibility, and simply being present that day. It has taught me that the most profound images often come not just from exotic destinations, but from a place that you have learned intimately enough to recognise something different in a square metre of coral reef.
My Photo Tip: The soft glow of the rising sun during morning dives provides the best ambient light to illuminate the reef. Spending time on the shallow edge of the reef provides the best opportunity to spot amazing macro critters.
Favourite Dive: The SS Stavronikita Shipwreck in Barbados
If Flamingo Bay Reef is my training ground, then the SS Stavronikita Shipwreck (aka ‘The Stav’) is my playground. This 365-foot Greek freighter, sunk for dive tourism in 1978, rests perfectly upright on the sandy seabed off Barbados’ west coast. It is not merely a shipwreck, but a stunning underwater monument; one of the Southern Caribbean’s most popular and vibrant artificial reefs.
Descending from the surface, the Stav emerges slowly; first a silhouette, then a metal superstructure taking form in the blue. Both haunting and majestic, its mast is draped in coral sponges and sea fans, and its decks are patrolled by roaming tarpons and hunting barracudas. Inside its massive cargo hold, slivers of sun rays pierce through rusted hull plates, illuminating suspended particles and the occasional resting hawksbill turtle.
What elevates this amazing shipwreck to my favourite dive site is the boundless photographic possibilities. Whether it’s adventuring freedivers posed against its coral-encrusted mast, experienced scuba divers drifting along the deck towards its massive cargo holds, or subjects framed by background silhouettes in the blue, this dive rewards the photographer willing to push their imagination beyond the obvious ‘hunk of metal’ sunk below the waves.
My Photo Tip: Spiralling the mast during your safety stop provides endless photo compositions for wide-angle photography. And if you have the patience, look closely between the orange cup corals and sponges to find a world of macro life.
Bucket List Dive: The Galapagos Islands
If there is one dive destination that represents the pinnacle of underwater adventure for me, it is the Galapagos. Not just a place to dive, but an expedition to one of the world’s last remaining underwater meccas. To photograph congregating hammerheads, document marine iguanas feeding, or have a likely chance to dive next to a pregnant whale shark, this is an underwater photographer’s nirvana.
With such magic not bound by its underwater diversity, the allure of ancient giant tortoises, coupled with blue-footed boobies and the stark, beautiful volcanic landscapes, the Galapagos offer a promise of total immersion into the raw, untamed engine of nature itself.
Final Thoughts
Sharing my journey through photography traces a path from the familiar to the fantastic. It reminds me that exploration is as much about deeply knowing your local waters as it is about crossing oceans for a bucket list dream. Each dive, each click of that shutter, whether in Grenada, Barbados, or the imagined waters of the Galapagos, is a step in a longer journey of witnessing and sharing the extraordinary beauty of our blue planet!
Instagram: @keonedrewphoto
Website: www.keonedrew.com
I’ve done very little diving in the Caribbean, and now I’m intrigued by Keone’s Caribbean choices, especially Flamingo Bay. I love those yellow head jawfish; they’re such amazing little critters. But the whole area is definitely somewhere that I want to get out to and dive a bit more. So I’m adding those choices to an ever-growing list. I hope you are keeping a list as well.
Don’t forget, if you want to be featured, just send us a message.
Saeed
