I once read that you know even though
most of us watch television and and see
motion pictures that we remember our
lives and still frames we remember
movies and still frames that’s how our
brain works so I think making a very
powerful photograph can affect a
person’s life and I think that for me
doing stories and making pictures
particularly these days about the
environment and about the problems that
are going around the ocean can indeed
make a difference I think that you know
the first step in making change in
anything in the world is awareness we
have to be informed and that can come
through photography I started with an
interest i guess in the ocean from the
time I was a very young boy I can
remember being in my parents living room
looking at the pages of National
Geographic magazine and dreaming about
being an adventurer being about one of
those people that was going to exotic
places and doing cool things and as I
got a little bit older I guess about age
15 or so I started to use scuba gear so
I started out as a diver first although
I always had an interest in photography
it was more for me in the beginning
about the exploration about being that
adventurer however I was you know a kid
that was probably 17 years old 18 years
old living in a small town in
Massachusetts kind of a blue-collar town
and the notion of somebody like that
becoming a National Geographic
photographer let’s say specifically
underwater was probably a
one-in-a-billion chance I don’t know why
I didn’t give up along the way there
certainly were many days where I would
come back and look at a roll of film
that I shot and say this is terrible and
you know what am i doing I mean I could
be making great money and and driving
nice cars and living at a good home and
instead I’m you know I’m pursuing this
artistic dream there was just something
inside there was just something within
me that didn’t allow me to quit i don’t
know if it was stubbornness or
stupidness or what but I just couldn’t
give it up I didn’t want to be you know
very old and thinking back saying I
didn’t take
chance eventually I got my first
assignment from National Geographic ten
years later i’m working on my 16th story
for the magazine and it’s been fantastic
and you know I finally get to do those
things that I always dreamt about doing
when I’m on assignment I generally have
an idea of what it is I want to do long
before I’ve arrived in whatever location
I’m working I’ve given a lot of thought
a lot of research to the subjects the
animals the people I’ll be working with
and how I might approach that subject
you have to be loose of course you have
to allow for changes or serendipity
which can often add great things to a
story but when I’m physically in the
water hopefully working with the subject
I have in mind I’m trying to think about
many things I’m trying to think about
how the light is affecting my subject
light is everything of course and in
photography and that usually means i
have to bring my light with me for
example into the ocean because you know
colors get lost very quickly underwater
so I have to bring down into water
strobes and I’ve got this big housing so
I’m physically trying to manage all of
that and I’m thinking about f-stops and
apertures and getting the exposure just
right and I’m thinking about the animal
you know is it too close is it too far
away am I in a threatening situation so
many things are thinking about but the
end of the day you know you hope that
you’re going to be experienced enough or
you’ve got enough salt
not only about three three-and-a-half
years ago did I made the make the switch
to digital photography and I sort of
dragged my feet I was a little reluctant
about it I wasn’t sure the quality of
the digital imaging and I I didn’t know
that you know that this would be as good
as film but once I made the switch I
can’t imagine going back we used to go
on assignment shoot four or five hundred
rolls of film come back send it to
Washington DC to National Geographic
headquarters I’d spend two weeks waiting
for the phone call and then they’d say
you did good or well it’s not some good
and you know it’s nerve-racking but now
I know what I’ve got before they do so
in the old days and not that long ago I
think failure was a much more ready
partner there was always that the angel
of death on your shoulder waiting to to
pounce because things were always so
stressful now you know you’ve got a
little more latitude you can do more and
I think the failures or less because
you’re seeing how you’re doing it’s like
being in a studio and we learn from that
we learn a tremendous amount I think
I’ve become a much better photographer
than the last three and a half years
because of that technology because I’ve
been able to see instantly how I’m doing
I think curiosity is is a great tool to
possess at that and patients of course
as a photographer I am interested in
everything I mean I love everything and
I’m fascinated and interested in all
animals so when I proposed stories to
the geographic I’m just looking for a
good story in 2003 I published a story
with National Geographic about something
called the Aquarius habitat which is the
world’s only laboratory for scientists
underwater it’s actually this little
house if you will on the bottom of the
ocean perched at about 60 feet off of
Key Largo Florida where scientists and
in my case journalists can live on the
bottom of the ocean and this was a
week-long mission to study the benefits
of marine protected areas but the
experience was amazing I mean most dives
you’re limited to maybe an hour
underwater but here I was able to spend
six or seven hours
and what that meant was that you could
see things you could acclimate to some
of the animals in a way that I never was
able to do before it’s very cool it’s
something that you know as a child I
remember looking at you know futuristic
drawings of what the the world might be
like when when I got older and this was
sort of what it was about it was you
know having this moon pool that you
could kind of emerged into from from the
ocean and then dry off and you’re living
under water and the review ports and
before you go to bed at night you can
watch a shark swim by literally sorry
shark swim by one night before bed and
schools of fish out in the spotlights
there were evenings where I’d go and
just sit out on top of the habitat the
physical hull and just watch this
transition that occurs on the coral reef
from day to night where you know huge
schools of fish would be sweeping past
as they go to find their protection for
the evening and other animals would kind
of emerged and come out as the dusk
began to set and all of these things
couldn’t photograph necessarily but what
an exceptional experience there’s all
kinds of stories behind the scene if you
will that go into an assignment you know
I guess the ones that a lot of people
like to hear about of the the kind of
scary ones or the the Indiana Jones
moments if you will I’ve had my share
I’ve been diving in Canada one day when
I surfaced in a snowstorm actually to
watch our dive boat it was an old
fishing boat sinking I destroy in
Ireland where the dive boat didn’t see
my assistant and I after we surfaced and
we drifted away in the middle of the
Atlantic we were drifting for two and a
half hours and the chilly north atlantic
ultimately got picked up by a fishing
boat that happened to pass by i’ve lost
my way inside shipwrecks like the Andrea
Doria or underneath arctic pack ice for
a few moments and been disoriented under
there and you know you could feel your
your heart beating and the stress
beginning to mount so there’s all these
things you know I’ve been nipped by
sharks and chased by sperm whales and
you know been grabbed by a Humboldt
squid and the Sea of Cortez and two
o’clock in the morning there’s all these
exciting moments but truth is what I
prefer to think about or all the
wonderful moments the the fact that in
underwater photography especially unlike
terrestrial photography we can’t use
telephoto
lenses let’s say to get close to our
animals so we physically have to get
close to these subjects which is a
testimony to these animals you know that
animal had to choose to get close and it
never ceases to amaze me when I go on
assignment you think about the odds
against you of getting these pictures
all the things that have to line up and
somehow miraculously they do they always
seem to happen you know I just did a
story on right whales and I went to a
place on the planet that these were
animals had really never been
photographed before was an island group
of islands in the sub-antarctic of New
Zealand and it was a population that had
only been discovered about 10 years ago
didn’t know how these animals would
react got there in the middle of winter
time in the sub-antarctic with wind
blowing and clouds and snow got in the
water and these 45-foot whales swim over
to me I mean within inches they were
curious about me those kinds of moments
of the other ones that I think we should
celebrate those are the moments that
really I’m hoping to remember in my old
age because those are the ones that made
the difference you know the exciting
dangerous moments are there and but they
pale in comparison to the to the real
highlights
so much of the ocean has not really been
explored it certainly hasn’t been
photographed so this is what I’m looking
forward to down the road there’s
absolutely so much more that I wanted to
I I just you know I don’t sleep at
nights because I think about all the
great things that I want to be out there
doing I may have had a wonderful run
these last 30 years but I’m probably
most excited about the next 30
most of us watch television and and see
motion pictures that we remember our
lives and still frames we remember
movies and still frames that’s how our
brain works so I think making a very
powerful photograph can affect a
person’s life and I think that for me
doing stories and making pictures
particularly these days about the
environment and about the problems that
are going around the ocean can indeed
make a difference I think that you know
the first step in making change in
anything in the world is awareness we
have to be informed and that can come
through photography I started with an
interest i guess in the ocean from the
time I was a very young boy I can
remember being in my parents living room
looking at the pages of National
Geographic magazine and dreaming about
being an adventurer being about one of
those people that was going to exotic
places and doing cool things and as I
got a little bit older I guess about age
15 or so I started to use scuba gear so
I started out as a diver first although
I always had an interest in photography
it was more for me in the beginning
about the exploration about being that
adventurer however I was you know a kid
that was probably 17 years old 18 years
old living in a small town in
Massachusetts kind of a blue-collar town
and the notion of somebody like that
becoming a National Geographic
photographer let’s say specifically
underwater was probably a
one-in-a-billion chance I don’t know why
I didn’t give up along the way there
certainly were many days where I would
come back and look at a roll of film
that I shot and say this is terrible and
you know what am i doing I mean I could
be making great money and and driving
nice cars and living at a good home and
instead I’m you know I’m pursuing this
artistic dream there was just something
inside there was just something within
me that didn’t allow me to quit i don’t
know if it was stubbornness or
stupidness or what but I just couldn’t
give it up I didn’t want to be you know
very old and thinking back saying I
didn’t take
chance eventually I got my first
assignment from National Geographic ten
years later i’m working on my 16th story
for the magazine and it’s been fantastic
and you know I finally get to do those
things that I always dreamt about doing
when I’m on assignment I generally have
an idea of what it is I want to do long
before I’ve arrived in whatever location
I’m working I’ve given a lot of thought
a lot of research to the subjects the
animals the people I’ll be working with
and how I might approach that subject
you have to be loose of course you have
to allow for changes or serendipity
which can often add great things to a
story but when I’m physically in the
water hopefully working with the subject
I have in mind I’m trying to think about
many things I’m trying to think about
how the light is affecting my subject
light is everything of course and in
photography and that usually means i
have to bring my light with me for
example into the ocean because you know
colors get lost very quickly underwater
so I have to bring down into water
strobes and I’ve got this big housing so
I’m physically trying to manage all of
that and I’m thinking about f-stops and
apertures and getting the exposure just
right and I’m thinking about the animal
you know is it too close is it too far
away am I in a threatening situation so
many things are thinking about but the
end of the day you know you hope that
you’re going to be experienced enough or
you’ve got enough salt
not only about three three-and-a-half
years ago did I made the make the switch
to digital photography and I sort of
dragged my feet I was a little reluctant
about it I wasn’t sure the quality of
the digital imaging and I I didn’t know
that you know that this would be as good
as film but once I made the switch I
can’t imagine going back we used to go
on assignment shoot four or five hundred
rolls of film come back send it to
Washington DC to National Geographic
headquarters I’d spend two weeks waiting
for the phone call and then they’d say
you did good or well it’s not some good
and you know it’s nerve-racking but now
I know what I’ve got before they do so
in the old days and not that long ago I
think failure was a much more ready
partner there was always that the angel
of death on your shoulder waiting to to
pounce because things were always so
stressful now you know you’ve got a
little more latitude you can do more and
I think the failures or less because
you’re seeing how you’re doing it’s like
being in a studio and we learn from that
we learn a tremendous amount I think
I’ve become a much better photographer
than the last three and a half years
because of that technology because I’ve
been able to see instantly how I’m doing
I think curiosity is is a great tool to
possess at that and patients of course
as a photographer I am interested in
everything I mean I love everything and
I’m fascinated and interested in all
animals so when I proposed stories to
the geographic I’m just looking for a
good story in 2003 I published a story
with National Geographic about something
called the Aquarius habitat which is the
world’s only laboratory for scientists
underwater it’s actually this little
house if you will on the bottom of the
ocean perched at about 60 feet off of
Key Largo Florida where scientists and
in my case journalists can live on the
bottom of the ocean and this was a
week-long mission to study the benefits
of marine protected areas but the
experience was amazing I mean most dives
you’re limited to maybe an hour
underwater but here I was able to spend
six or seven hours
and what that meant was that you could
see things you could acclimate to some
of the animals in a way that I never was
able to do before it’s very cool it’s
something that you know as a child I
remember looking at you know futuristic
drawings of what the the world might be
like when when I got older and this was
sort of what it was about it was you
know having this moon pool that you
could kind of emerged into from from the
ocean and then dry off and you’re living
under water and the review ports and
before you go to bed at night you can
watch a shark swim by literally sorry
shark swim by one night before bed and
schools of fish out in the spotlights
there were evenings where I’d go and
just sit out on top of the habitat the
physical hull and just watch this
transition that occurs on the coral reef
from day to night where you know huge
schools of fish would be sweeping past
as they go to find their protection for
the evening and other animals would kind
of emerged and come out as the dusk
began to set and all of these things
couldn’t photograph necessarily but what
an exceptional experience there’s all
kinds of stories behind the scene if you
will that go into an assignment you know
I guess the ones that a lot of people
like to hear about of the the kind of
scary ones or the the Indiana Jones
moments if you will I’ve had my share
I’ve been diving in Canada one day when
I surfaced in a snowstorm actually to
watch our dive boat it was an old
fishing boat sinking I destroy in
Ireland where the dive boat didn’t see
my assistant and I after we surfaced and
we drifted away in the middle of the
Atlantic we were drifting for two and a
half hours and the chilly north atlantic
ultimately got picked up by a fishing
boat that happened to pass by i’ve lost
my way inside shipwrecks like the Andrea
Doria or underneath arctic pack ice for
a few moments and been disoriented under
there and you know you could feel your
your heart beating and the stress
beginning to mount so there’s all these
things you know I’ve been nipped by
sharks and chased by sperm whales and
you know been grabbed by a Humboldt
squid and the Sea of Cortez and two
o’clock in the morning there’s all these
exciting moments but truth is what I
prefer to think about or all the
wonderful moments the the fact that in
underwater photography especially unlike
terrestrial photography we can’t use
telephoto
lenses let’s say to get close to our
animals so we physically have to get
close to these subjects which is a
testimony to these animals you know that
animal had to choose to get close and it
never ceases to amaze me when I go on
assignment you think about the odds
against you of getting these pictures
all the things that have to line up and
somehow miraculously they do they always
seem to happen you know I just did a
story on right whales and I went to a
place on the planet that these were
animals had really never been
photographed before was an island group
of islands in the sub-antarctic of New
Zealand and it was a population that had
only been discovered about 10 years ago
didn’t know how these animals would
react got there in the middle of winter
time in the sub-antarctic with wind
blowing and clouds and snow got in the
water and these 45-foot whales swim over
to me I mean within inches they were
curious about me those kinds of moments
of the other ones that I think we should
celebrate those are the moments that
really I’m hoping to remember in my old
age because those are the ones that made
the difference you know the exciting
dangerous moments are there and but they
pale in comparison to the to the real
highlights
so much of the ocean has not really been
explored it certainly hasn’t been
photographed so this is what I’m looking
forward to down the road there’s
absolutely so much more that I wanted to
I I just you know I don’t sleep at
nights because I think about all the
great things that I want to be out there
doing I may have had a wonderful run
these last 30 years but I’m probably
most excited about the next 30
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