They are friends. And more often than not I won't pop in because I need something, but just to chat. Optics is a meeting place and I have, on occasion, been there for several hours and become so occupied talking to other photographers that it is time to catch my train home even before I have said hello to Steve and the gang!

Optics don't have to make the hard sell because they have selected on the very best product lines. Subal, Subtronic, Inon and Olympus all sell themselves. So not having to be salesmen means that the team at Optics always have the time to pass on all their detailed knowledge on how to look after and get the best from your kit. Unlike normal shops the service that you get from Ocean Optics does not end with the swipe of a credit card. That is merely the beginning of being an Optics customer.

digital underwater photography workshops.

One of Alex's proudest achievements was founding the Young Underwater Photographer's group (www.yup.digideep.com), set up to help the younger generation get to know each other and exchange ideas and encouragement. Alex and the international membership of YUP received the Visions in the Sea Award 2003 for their Outstanding Contribution to Underwater Photography.

Alex's website is http://www.amustard.com We asked Alex why he is an Ocean Optics customer:Yes, I buy all my kit at Ocean Optics, but that isn't the point. Optics, as they are known to their customers/friends (the words are interchangeable), isn't a shop in the traditional sense. It is not a place that you go to, buy something and leave. The people who work there are not staff.

Alexander Mustard, 32, has been an underwater photographer since he was nine years old, and is a total digital convert, currently shooting with a Nikon D2X in a Subal housing with Subtronic strobes.

Alex's images have been published around the world in books and magazines and used in international advertising campaigns. He has won many national and international awards, including four at the prestigious Antibes Festival Mondial De L'Image Sous Marine. He is a Co-Administrator of US website Wetpixel.com and is the Digital Officer for the British Society of Underwater Photography (BSoUP).

Alex is a popular speaker at the Visions in the Sea Conferences and at BSoUP and writes regularly for Underwater Photography Magazine and other publications. Due to demand, Alex has recently started running