Snorkeling With President Obama: How Our Photographer Got the Shot (Exclusive) | National Geographic

I’ve never photographed a president
before this was my first experience you
know being sort of in the presence of
Air Force one and all the security and
Secret Service the day that the
president arrived was a perfect se day
sunny clear I didn’t expect or know that
I would have one-on-one time with the
president after I photographed the
interviews somebody else from the White
House came over and put their hand on my
shoulder and said we’ve made room for
you on the boat so I had I think they
said six minutes to get my stuff
together being underwater with President
Obama was for me a a surreal experience
I was very nervous but then I realized
that all of my pictures were sort of
just this side profile and it was lovely
the corals were pretty and he was very
sort of elegantly moving just below the
surface but I wanted to see his face
a year ago I had a cover story for
National Geographic about dolphins in
many ways photographing President Obama
for me was was a similar experience you
know the the subject was very different
of course but I made a decision not to
use flashes not to use strobes I sort of
positioned myself in front of him as he
was sort of swimming toward me and just
made a series of images as he was
swimming past those magic moments come
down to just a handful of of times and
then you know I was back on shore with
my surface cameras watching him climb
the stairs in Air Force One depart
though it was all very quick and yet it
took me a while to sort of process it
and remind myself that it really was
true that had happened
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