Underwater photographers I have the pleasure of knowing…

This is a showcase of underwater photographers I have had the pleasure of knowing or working with. This blog comes as a result of being locked up at home during the corona virus isolation. I was cleaning my camera equipment which has not seen much water recently and it gave me the idea of showcasing the amazing talent of these individuals. If you need a photographer or in some cases want underwater photography instruction beyond the basic PADI Underwater Photographer specialty course then I encourage you to contact them or check out their website / instagram accounts listed. So…. sit back and enjoy:

Tracey Jones

Aged 17, I started a photography course at Norwich City College, UK. The same year I went on a holiday to Rhodes where I got my open water diving license.  The two things were very separate in my life until I went travelling after completing my BA Hons in Photography. 

In Thailand I met an underwater photographer, who easily persuaded me to hire an underwater camera and join him for a dive. I was hooked. The next year I returned to Thailand to complete all courses up to Dive Master. I also invested in my first underwater camera set up; a canon 7D inside an Ikelite housing. 

I Spent 5 years in South East Asia, working as an underwater photographer for various dive schools. Eventually I settled in Australia where I now work on dive boats which visit the Great Barrier Reef daily. 

Banded Sea Krait

This photo was taken during a night dive in Bao Bao, Indonesia. I accidentally disturbed the snake but managed to capture this shot before he swam up between my legs to the surface. It was lit using on a small dive torch as I had broken both my Inon z240 strobes earlier in the dive trip. Taken with canon 7D and sigma 18-50mm lens, in Nauticam housing. 

www.traceyjonesphotography.com

Kit Rairigh

My name is Kit Rairigh and I come from the San Francisco “Bay Area”, California. Currently I’m working as a PADI Instructor and dive shop co-manager in Amed, Bali. When I first started diving 8 years ago, the aspect of underwater photography never really crossed my mind. I had always enjoyed on-land photography primarily with a tried-and-true Canon Eos Rebel. But as I advanced through the diving levels, I wanted to share what I was experiencing underwater with friends and family. I started with a GoPro Hero 3+ which was… well at least it provided something I could share. At the Divemaster level, I started using a Canon Powershot D30 at the shop I worked for which skyrocketed my interest and I yearned for a proper manual camera again. Naturally, I sold my car and invested in a setup that I’m still proud of and continually learning to this day. 

Underwater photography and videography has completely changed the way I see diving and provided such an intense challenge that I have become absolutely addicted! Mix the concepts of photography with an underwater world full of incredibly diverse seascapes, alien creatures, and ever-changing conditions, and it leaves the creative possibilities endless. I hope that through underwater photography and videography, I can share the magic and amazement I feel with the rest of the world. While  much focus is on protecting land animals and the environment, I hope to share the underwater beauty to build awareness and ensure enduring ocean health.

Favorite subject: Nudibranchs! The variety here in Amed is mind-blowing.

Current setup: Sony a6500, Nauticam housing, WWL-1, CMC-1, Inon Z-330.

Photo: Porcelain crab in an anemone shot at a safety stop in Raja Ampat, Indonesia.

Instagram link

Angelina Pilarinos

My name is Angelina Pilarinos and I am originally from New York.  I started scuba diving in Rochester, New York while I was in college in 2012.  At the time I had an opportunity to take an underwater photography elective class in school.  I didn’t know what I was getting myself into and I could not have imagined the impact it would have on my life.  As part of the class we got certified as open water divers and then advanced divers with a nitrox specialty.  The course was not only teaching us how to scuba dive but we were learning to take photos underwater and how to edit them as well.  Our class trip was to Bonaire in the Caribbean where I saw my first reef.  I was hooked.

It wasn’t until 2015 that I started scuba diving again.  I started traveling the world and I met an instructor in Thailand who gave me the idea of working as an underwater photographer.  So I went to Utila and became a divemaster.  After that I moved to Australia where I got my first job working as an underwater photographer.  Now 2 years later I am working in Port Douglas, Australia as an underwater photographer and divemaster for Calypso Reef Cruises.  

I love to photograph the reef but my favorite subject is definitely a cuttlefish; I find them so interesting!  My equipment includes a Nikon D810 and a Sigma 15 mm fisheye lens.  That is all inside a Nauticam housing with double Ikelite 160 strobes.

This photo is of a weedy sea dragon taken in the waters of Eaglehawk Neck in Tasmania.  It was the coldest water I had ever been diving in at 16°C and was the first time I had ever seen kelp.  Trying to get the eye in focus was definitely a challenge.  It took several attempts but eventually I was able to capture this moment.  This image represents a lot of firsts for me; cold water, kelp, first time seeing a weedy sea dragon; it will always be a memorable image in my eyes.

http://www.angelinapilarinos.com/

https://www.instagram.com/angelina_pilarinos/

Chloe Hsu

My name is Chloe, I came from Taiwan, came to Australia in 2015. I was only a OW diver but was determined to become an Underwater photographer!

I had the most fun as an Underwater photographer with Diver's Den (when I became an Dive Instructor with Kai's IDC program), best and funniest moments are definitely with another crew on board.

Never regret it ever since, even with the pandemic going on I miss hanging out with fish; I miss taking underwater pictures!

I don't have a favourite subject to shoot, all fish are equal and they all have quite a personality in them, which showed my whole point in the Pipe fish picture I took, it was just lovin' the spotlight! She was not afraid of me nor my flashy camera and just pose for me the whole time! That's when I realise how lucky I am as an underwater photographer ....

My insta:

https://www.instagram.com/seagypsyimage/ 

Kai Steinbeck

I am no where near in the same category of these incredible people… but heck, it is my website so I might as well put myself into the mix.

My photography interest started on land when I was a teenager and we still had film to develop. I took and developed probably 90% of all the photos in my high school yearbook. My underwater photography endeavours only started about a year and a half ago when I found a camera rig that I could afford. To this date the shop which sold it to me ( Digital Diver in Cairns ) still tells me that I got into it very cheap.

I have an old rig… It is an Ikelite housing for a Canon 440 with 2 Ikelite 160 strobes. I have a Tokina fish eye and a canon 100 mm for macro.

The image of this particular green sea turtle was taken on a recent trip to Komodo National Park in Indonesia. The particular dive site is known for its aggregation of turtles. This particular one was happy for me to come as close as I did and let me change settings to my hearts content until I got it right.

Apart from my love of underwater photography I am a PADI Course Director teaching PADI IDC programs in Port Douglas, Queensland Australia.

www.diveinstructor.com.au and for some of my other photos portfolio

Sirio Lauricella

Where are you from? Italy

Do you work as an underwater photographer? Not much at the moment but yeah

When did you start diving and what level are you now? My first dive was in 2005 and I'm PADI Instructor

How did you get into an underwater photographer? Spending weeks on the GBR and not having a chance to capture its beauty, push me towards it

Favourite subject? Too many, from sharks to mantas and so on...I guess had lots of fun capturing the feather stars during night dive

Funny story (if you have one) - Well, funny was when trying to swim away from a whale shark, to let him swim. I was just in freediving gear and he was a teenager 5m male, who swam straight towards me, probably just curious and for a few seconds,
my whole rig was in his big mouth...no strobe only the housing...still intact and shark learnt about rigs aren't plankton. We were at the surface and all our guest so the happening, good time, no one got hurt.

Manta ray in South Ari Atoll - Maldives. Best place to dive with mantas. Here side on a cleaning-station played with her till my safety stop. Stunning animals

SIRIO Lauricella
PADI MSDT #291444

Instagram profile

Libby Sterling

Where are you from?  All over really NSW, NT and now QLD

I grew up in Ulladulla (NSW south coast) went to Uni in Canberra, lived and worked in the NT for 11+ years, moved to Coffs Harbour and stayed for 10+ years, now living in Cairns and not planning on going anywhere else any time soon.

Do you work as an underwater photographer?  No, I’m a happy snapper, I just love taking photos, actually to be honest, I’m obsessed with uw photography.    I give away more than I actually sell.

When did you start diving and what level are you now? 

·       Started diving in 1983 in Ulladulla on the NSW South Coast (seriously cold water, although I didn’t know any better back then)

·       Became an instructor in 1985 and graduated to Master Instructor in 1995 whilst living in the NT (Darwin).

·       I still teach as a freelance instructor, mostly specialty courses.

How did you get into underwater photography?  I became interested in photography after moving to Cairns and diving on the Great Barrier Reef.  It just happened, started seeing amazing photos taken by other divers and the professional photographers on the boats.  It was really inspiring to watch these guys work.  So I made a start with a pretty basic compact camera.  I’ve upgraded a couple of times although stayed with compact cameras.  I like the flexibility of being able to change from wide angle to macro and back again.

Camera equipment

I use a compact camera (Canon G7xmkii) in Recsea housing with 2 x sea and sea strobes.  I shoot in raw in full manual mode and edit using Adobe Lightroom.

Favourite subject?   Turtles are probably my most favourite although enjoy anything really; shipwrecks are another personal favourite, coral reefs, anemone fish, gorgonian fans, wally, sharks, moray eels, people, basically if its underwater I’ll take a photo of it.  I’m more wide-angle than macro focussed although I am trying to improve my macro photography.

Funny story (if you have one, not sure it’s funny…)

So back in the day (living in Ulladulla, working as a DM / Instructor), I would do just about anything ‘not to get stuck’ diving with underwater photographers, (wash the boat, wash stinky dive gear, fill tanks, unload the ute).  I could never understand why they would spend what seemed like hours, lining up every single shot.  A person could freeze to death before they took the photo.  I was more the “just keep swimming” kind of diver back then.

Now I get it, I mostly dive solo these days, and yes I might spend 5 – 10 minutes lining up that elusive photo of the clown fish or the fan, changing the lights, positioning myself, the camera, never quite being happy with something, (e.g. the focus, or the lighting), taking photos of people whether they like it or not.  Seems I might just have turned into one of those photographers.    Thank goodness for digital photography! I do still swim around a fair bit, I’m not really a stay in one place kind of diver.

I get so much pleasure from taking the photos, editing them and then sharing with family and friends via Facebook and Instagram.  I love looking at other people’s photos and working out how they’ve set up the shot, what settings they used.

Libby Sterling

Insta:  https://www.instagram.com/libby_sterling_photography/?hl=en

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/sterlingimagery/

Redbubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/libbysterling/shop?asc=u

David Girsh

Since I was just a kid, spending time at the beach (or anywhere near the ocean ) was / is my favourite thing to do! At the age of 15 I became a certified diver and very quickly climbed the certification ladder of scuba and was qualified as an Instructor at the age of 21. Soon after, I left my home country - Israel and started travelling the world, diving and living in some of the most amazing destinations on earth! Ranging from the cold waters of New Zealand and South Australia to the warm Caribbean and the South Pacific Islands.

Photography has always been one of my greatest passions, above and below the water, and lately I'm is putting a strong emphasis into videography as well. Capturing the underwater world enables people who are not familiar with it to fall in love instantly and I believe this is a very strong tool to make a difference.

Today, my main focus is photography, teaching various dive courses and leading dive trips around the world, spreading the message for ocean conservation!

I use the Panasonic GH5 all wrapped up in a Nimar housing. This particular whaleshark was taken on Ningaloo reef in WA, Australia.

https://www.instagram.com/davidgirsh/

Jody Dixon

I'm from the United States originally but have been living abroad for several years now. I started diving back in 2007, just recreationally, but decided to take the instructor leap in 2017. 

I moved to Thailand to get certified and begin teaching and that's really where my love for underwater photography started. I enjoyed photographing things on land but gained a much bigger appreciation for what I found underwater. With the exception of trigger fish. I was in the middle of an advanced photography course and had paused to hover mid-water and review the photos I had just taken of a little nudi (my favorite thing to shoot by far!). One hand was dangling by my side when out of no where something just smashed my finger. It startled me and I screamed, causing me to lose my reg out of my mouth, and when I looked down, a giant Titan triggerfish had clamped down on one of my fingers and wouldn't let go. I gave it a good shake to get it off, recovered my reg and looked over at the photography instructor who was nearly in tears laughing at the whole sight. The little terror ended up biting through my finger down to the bone and cracking the bone in my knuckle in the process. To this day, I still have triggerfish PTSD.

https://www.instagram.com/jodilynndixon/