Denise Lira-Ratinoff
REVIEW OF GATES STO & PROFESSIONAL UNDERWATER VIDEOGRAPHY COURSE
by Denise Lira-Ratinoff
Denise Lira Ratinoff is an Interdisciplinary Artist with internationally recognised experience presenting the environmental problems of the Ocean through the Arts. At present, she lives and works in Chile, the United States and Germany.
Denise has had exhibits in many countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Recently she was awarded the Honorary Award for Best Exhibition of the Year along with Patricio Aguilar Diaz with the CHRONOMETER Installation in Santiago, Chile.
Her work explores the connections and relationships between humanity and nature creating installations that wish to demonstrate and establish the symmetries, closeness and proximities between them. The materials and equipment that she uses is a combination of photography, video, sound, organic materials, plastic residues and a direct contact with space with the intention of awakening and experimenting each one of the senses.
At present she is in the process of production, development and direction of the Film AIR(E). This production from the Arts to the movie screen reflects about the devastating acoustic contamination and uncontrolled contamination of plastic in the Ocean.
“Thanks for allowing me to think rather than to react, for changing my entire perception of the underwater world, and for opening my eyes and entire awareness to what diving, filming and the marine world really are about…”
Dear Guy and Anita,
Thank you so much dearest Anita & Guy for welcoming me. There are no words to explain you how happy I feel right now! I am absolutely in a dream come true. And thank you for finding this amazing apartment for me!! What an awesome place! I am so happy! The course is absolutely amazing!!!! I should be here with Liquid Motion for a year!!!! It is a passion that I cannot describe in words. I am so lucky to be here ….and your words are extremely deep and go right to the heart! Thank you so much Guy for today’s sessions, I am learning and loving it, and am feeling so much passion for this.
2 Feb:
Guy! Thank you so much for our equipment STO, I just loved it and I am already ready with all the bags for tomorrow! Thank you for listening to the main vision of my Film. I am totally ready for a new moment underwater that is always a feeling of freedom !
The two dives today were absolutely amazing! I am not a good enough diver to take the camera immediately, so you are helping me master a variety of important diving techniques so i can take the camera underwater safely, which I am extremely grateful for. All I want is to be a diver able to take my camera and film my dream, as you know.
Anita, You and Guy are absolutely the best souls that I ever met, so whatever we have to do I will say yes because this is why I am here and I have all the time to learn before creating images with the camera. I am so inspired by you both and am sure I will rest deeply.
Thank you so much Guy for taking the time to teach me everything today. You can take all the time you want to make me a better diver before taking the camera. Just being here is a dream! You have the best office in the world, Anita & Guy!!!!
“Thank you for teaching me about life through diving and filming and for these wonderful days? Anita, Crystelle & Guy, you are unique people in all senses. Everything is coming together for me…”
3 Feb
This is life when you really follow your instincts and love what you do!!!! I trust you both so much, because I know who you are. Thanks again Guy for this unique opportunity and as I mentioned many times you are my mentor and I will do 100% what you think I should do. Thank you Anita for the delicious snacks every day on our huge, private boat, the pineapple and papaya and sandwiches were DELICIOSA! and for allowing me the freedom to choose the sites that are best for my learning. Tomorrow we will have an amazing 2 dives. ????
4 Feb
I have to tell you that I feel so great here! Guy I feel absolutely even better than yesterday!!!! I really enjoyed each of the dives!!!!! I love training with the currents!!!!!! You are my mentor in all senses!!!!! You are the best best best diver I have ever seen! and you are opening my eyes and my entire awareness to what the marine world really is. !! I am so looking forwards to tomorrow morning already!
5 feb
Once again, such amazing dives the two spots, absolutely gorgeous!!!! From the bottom of my heart thank you so much Guy for teaching me each technique and for making me become a really good diver! I feel absolutely content about my progress and as I mentioned many times your are my master! A beautiful eagle ray too – It was the most spectacular moment!!!!! And it was super close!
I feel absolutely amazing and each day I am learning so much. So much learning already in such a few days! Thanks for allowing me to think rather than to react. This is a key for life! And always being aware.
I never want these days to end! I just love every second! Thanks for living so deeply and transmitting your very best energy. Anita, You and Guy are making all my dreams come true, you cannot even imagine. This is the best place and moment I can be in!!!! ?
6 feb – Another amazing two dives, with 2 beautiful morays. I’m Very happy with my progress. And do not want the days to go so fast!!! Thanks Guy so much for teaching me each day to become a better diver and now to become a filmmaker! You are making my dreams a reality!!!!!
7 feb – Wonderful dives! my goals are actually becoming a reality! Thank you so much Anita & Guy for these impressive days and all senses that i am living! I feel so good and extremely content. you are taking care of every single detail!!! This is absolutely a before and after experience in my life!!!! Anita & Guy! Big big hugs and thank you for changing my perception of seeing underwater ?
9 feb – Thank you for these two dives and now I will focus mainly on the breathing and each movement being extremely ZEN. I love the morays, I think I did not get the shot, but I enjoyed them so much. My favorites are all the Soft Corals !!!!! I can stay the whole dive with them, their movements are like dancing in the wind. I feel so good Guy thanks again!!!!! You cannot imagine the change of thinking and the change of life that I already have after being underwater a few dives with the camera. I know this is the beginning and I need to learn sooooo much and achieve the BREATHING but I know the ARTWORK I will achieve after learning with you will be a real awareness about the Ocean. I always try to touch the heart first, and then start thinking about changing peoples habits and it is a collective awareness. I am so looking forward to keep learning with you and keep growing.
Anita your words really get deeply into my heart! I am already rethinking today’s dives and trying to put everything together in my mind and body to transmit it to my unconscious balance and body movements. Thank you for teaching me about life through diving and for these wonderful days? Anita, Crystelle & Guy, you are unique people in all senses and thanks again for allowing me to be part of your daily life.
10 feb – Thanks Guy for teaching me each day to be a better diver! And thanks so much Guy for taking care of all the equipment details for me! You cannot imagine how much I appreciate it.
I really appreciate you time and dedication with me! I just LOVE LOVE learning so much each day! Guy is absolutely my Master!!!!!! Of diving and philosophy of life! I absolutely like and admire so much Guy’s Artwork and his visión of life
11 feb – You cannot imagine my feeling now, i am absolutely so happy and my head full of information that everything is coming together, every day achieving better footage. Today we got some great scenes. Guy you are transmitting you passion into my life. I will dream of dancing with each magestic creature dancing in the Ocean. So happy we will test the filters tomorrow! Looking forwards? Today we had two amazing dives! The turtles were spectacular and the moray just a dream – seeing her and Guy communicating was superb. Each day I love being here more and more!
12 feb – I am extremely content with what I learned today! You are a Master Guy absolutely! Thanks again Guy for teaching me so much after our dives are done when we are reviewing the footage!!!!! I am working on ideas to tell a story in the deep blue for next week! Today was a key day !!!! Absolutely happy with each day! I am learning so much but what I really like the most is learning Guy’s way of seeing life and portraying equilibrium and connection as a key point. Everything is connected and as an example if you lose the buoyancy all the upcoming will be wrong so the breathing is the balance of life. I will keep writing on Sunday and trying to apply my new knowledge to the script. After all this diving I have so much to adjust and I would like to come a full month and work on the editing, new camera and also will bring my hydrophones and want to record ambient sound (underwater and on land). Today I was enjoying so much the footage of the deep blue with some minerals and showing the powerful strength of the currents and do a parallel with images filmed faster because of the currents and at the same time using noise pollution as a breaking point of disturbance.
Today when we were at the cave I felt the same sensation of the Installation CHRONOMETER where It is a tunnel you have to get inside, full awareness, it was very narrow, just listening to the sound of whales until you reach the end. From the altitude you can view the Ocean filmed zenith and you are facing a large scale photograph of a melted iceberg where underneath it a chronometer represents the hour, minutes and seconds of time that never stops.
I can keep writing all night!
“The course instructor, Guy, is committed to the success of every student. His tireless efforts, professional workflow and one-on-one instruction was invaluable“
13 feb – The perfect word to express my feelings regarding these days together does not exist. All my dreams are becoming real because of you!
I have been viewing each clip since the first day and am learning your passion and gift to communicate and express through film. Guy, your mentoring is absolutely the best in the world – really in the world! You are so generous and the flow that you are communicating and each observation of my performance underwater is unforgettable. You are always in advance!
If life on earth will be like the life underwater the world would be completely different. There is a before and after!
14 feb – Balance, freedom, contemplation, observation, levitation……… and a sense of no time…..no boundaries…. the symbiosis between creatures is magical…
Thank you so much Anita for your words. All of this is because Guy has a unique way of seeing life and he transmits each detail to me after reviewing the footage together. This is the beginning of a new phase in my life.
15 feb – Dear Guy, my Camera operator IBook is absolutely a treasure. And the best part is the last page. I feel so honored to be part of your life and learning from the best of the best. There is no words to express my gratitude. My heart is beating fast only because I feel that I have learned a new vision of life. It is all about the breathing!!!!!!I read a lot and also wrote but just love being in the water. I’m counting the hours for tomorrow dives.
16 feb – Another absolutely amazing experience today! I feel so excited with each days improvement and I know it is all about the diving and I am working hard and I will make it. Tomorrow I will focus on not fining and controlling the breathing all the time, as well as the exposure and not filming too dark like you showed me today.
Dear Anita, today at the first dive we had an amazing encounter with an Eagle Ray and I was able to film her frontal and on the side, etc. She was close to the sand and the entire face was absolutely majestic! I just loved the dive and I felt good. On the second dive we were at the same point and I went deep following 2 Eagle Rays but they were still too far. I absolutely love the seagrass aad was filming it at the end of the two dives. Each day learning so much!!!! And having unforgettable experiences. ?
feb 21 – Working with the sound sound of the whales and thinking my next encounter with one of them…… Dear Anita you are incredible thank you so much. You are the best producer ever and always thinking in each detail!!!!!
Dear Guy I feel so good and I have no words to express my gratitude ? for each day and specially for opening a new path in my life. Each day you express your professionalism through every detail regarding being a diver able to take a camera and you really made me feel a better diver and I have the wonderful sensation that now I can dive in currents, caves, deep dives, wrecks, reefs and manage my breathing, buoyancy and camera. You are a unique MASTER!!!! and coming here was absolutely the best gift for myself!!!!!! This is the beginning of many things that we are going to do together!!!!!
22 feb – Thank you again for changing my life in all senses! I have a completely different vision of life now to when i arrived. Guy’s generosity and unique soul have been a treasure and it is my greatest honor to be here as your guest. I am already looking forwards for my next visit very soon! I do not want to leave…You are amazing!!!!!!!
I’m waiting at the VIP lounge thinking how privileged I am to have had the honor of meeting you both!!!! I feel absolutely so close to you dearest Anita & Guy!!!!!!Your life is absolutely a dream and you have chosen the best lifestyle!!!!! I admire you soooooo much!!!! Big hugs! All my love and counting the days to be there with you again.
17 feb – Being with you is a treasure!!!! Dear Guy thanks so much for the ebook I just love the way you write and clearly communicate how to do things through videos or still.
I need to emphasize the lighting and the exposure! Need to keep thinking a plan and advance the buoyancy! Thank you so much Guy for today’s dives. Absolutely amazing and for me the deepest dive was so impressive and I feel ever more confident with each thing that you tell me. You are absolutely my Master (a Master) but for me my Master!!!!!! You have completely changed the way I see the Ocean now. And there are no words to describe the second dive with the turtle – absolutely a dream. This is the first time in my life that I see a Tortuga underwater. Thank you for all these emotions!!!
18 feb – Guaaaaaaaaa!!!!! It is so beautiful!!!! Did I make that footage????? I just love it. Thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I am keep looking at it one, two, three, four……..times!!!!!
Thank you so much dearest Anita, Guy & Crystelle for cooking for me and specially what I love the most was our conversation. I just love being here and feel so good together. You are part of life forever!!!!! Thanks again Guy for putting together the amazing video! Absolutely completes my heart. Now, I am ready to start viewing the footage. You are a unique and wonderful family and I feel so honored to have the opportunity of meeting you and I am sure this is the beginning for a long way together! Night night sleep deeply ????
18 feb – Dear Guy, I feel super good with our deep dive experiences! And the best of all is that you are making me into a great, confident and safe diver. Thanks so much for all your personal care, flexibility and adapting to me all the time, I feel completely a before and after person in all senses!
My absolutely favorites moments were with the Sting Ray, Eagle Ray, Morey Eel and the Hawksbill Turtle. These days have changed my life forever! I love the freedom and majestic feelings underwater?
Thank you so much Guy for today’s dives and afterwards for the impressive session revising each clip. Everything is coming together day by day! I cannot believe we are almost at the end. As I mentioned many times, this is a before and after experience in my life.
20 feb – Your Fish Behavior Film is soooo beautiful and absolutely outstanding! It is a treasure and I want to do the Fish Behaviour course as soon as possible! The footage is just spectacular!!!!!!
It will be my priority when I am back! Just love it! And in the meantime I was contemplating my Film, imagining each clip I may do! You are the most powerful couple that I ever met! ❤️❤️