I did mine ...
Once I started u/w photo the entire nature of my diving changed. When I started diving in 1971 my primary interest was in seeing as much as I could on every dive. I was somewhat of a "reef runner"
My first offshoot/diversion in diving was the whole marine aquarium thing and almost all my dives for several years (I was living in S Fla at the time and doing a ton of shore dives) were done to gather critters for my 250 gallon salt water tank.
But the real deal for me came on a project with the Cousteau's in 1988. They had a guy on loan from Nikon (Scott Frier) who had shot their Amazon Expedition and really knew his stuff. Plus, Nikon had supplied him with about 10 full Nikonos outfits, which he loaned to project participants, as long as you were willing to sit through his u/w photo classes and learn how to repair the camera if it broke or you flooded it. Talk about a deal that was too good to refuse !! I came back from that 2 week project in the BVI totally hooked on u/w photo and bought my own Nikonos set-up. I shot film with that camera until just this year, when I made the jump to digital.
Bottom line for me is that I don't swim a large distance any more on my dives. Depth (at least below 50') isn't really a priority to me. Oh ...I'll drop off a wall and bounce off 90' to see what's happening but for the most part you can find me in 30 - 40' hanging out on a coral head or ledge cheking out the little creatures and looking for my next shot.
I may be the exception, rather than the rule, but once I got a camera in my hand under water I was smitten. My office walls are covered with prints of creatures of the deep and it gives me great pleasure to show them to people who otherwise would never see such things. It also helps to surround myself with things that keep my mind off the fact that I'm at work !!
'Slogger