Photographic portfolio

Portfolio

portfolio of underwater photos

This portfolio of images shows the kind of photography we have specialised in. Our images are almost exclusively dedicated to the environment, its beauty and enjoyment, but unfortunately also to how humans have changed it and how it degrades slowly before our very eyes. The sea is connected to the land because soiled water flows down from the land causing damage to sea life.
Intense pleasure we derive from observing the marine environment and from understanding how it functions. The unusual forms and colours of marine life are forever inspiring, bathed in the many ways the light manfests itself.
In this environment the diver is forever present (as the photographer and his buddy), but seemingly absent from so many pictures. However, the photographer's model embodies the adventure, the amazement and wonder of being there.

Always cluttered by heavy dive tanks, buoyancy equipment and more, the diver has lost his connection with this realm of beauty in shape and movement. We have therefore pioneered the depiction of the human shape in its elegance and beauty, both by discarding the heavy equipment wherever possible and by depicting the female nude juxtaposed to forms of nature.
The coast is humanity's most treasured environment, both for living and pleasure. The dunes, beaches, waves, harbours and islands invite for the most diverse sorts of activities, always interesting to observe.
Human industriousness, accelerated by technology, welfare and population growth, has left its footprint wherever one goes, also in the sea in places where one would least expect it. The Seafriends web site has taken on the fight for the sea, to bequeath to our children a better world and ocean while not saddling them with unbearable burdens. Many of our photographs depict processes of decay, stupidity and the results of corrupt thinking. We document soil loss, erosion, urbanisation, deforestation, agricultural runoff, poisonous plankton blooms, mass mortalities, disease and other aspects of environmental degradation.

We use 35mm Nikon professional cameras both above and under water and select the finest films to capture the light and transparency of the sea. Photos are scanned on a professional Nikon scanner and rendered for best results.

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Keywords: NZ, New Zealand, underwater, sea, ocean, environment, degradation, marine, reserve, MPA, conservation, saving, beach, fun, beauty, amazement, wonder, scuba, snorkelling, diving, freediving, swimming, recreation, fishing, spearfishing,

-- Seafriends home -- images -- Rev 20060209,20070730,

**Beautiful light**
f034316: dolphin's view of swimmers and their kayaks near Mayor Island, NZ.	f034306: A male bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) in cathedral light reflected by planktonic organisms.

f034018: a freediver cautiously enters a dark cave over a kelp forest of Ecklonia radiata, Mayor Island.

f007210: bathed in cathedral light, a stand of lush sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca) grows beyond reach of the hungry sea urchins in the foreground.

f012813: the lush canopy of a stalked kelp (Ecklonia radiata) obscures the sun light but not its rays.

**Amazing fish**
f031820: A mature lionfish (firefish) (Pterois volitans) parades its many petticoats near the Kermadec Islands.	f034704: a male and female red pigfish (Bodianus vulpinus) caught in their mating ceremony at dusk, Poor Knights Islands.

f035736: this old snapper (Sparus auratus), aptly named Monkeyface, delights children in the Goat Island marine reserve because of its enormous size and ugly looks.

f020507: short tailed stingrays (Dasyatus brevicaudatus) practising hanggliding in the narrow Northern Arch, Poor Knights Islands.

f021328: An old john dory (Zeus japonicus) photographed at night. These fish have an uncanny sense of balance and can swim in any position: upright, upside down or flat.

f028705: old male sandagers wrasse (Coris sandageri)

f028705: an old male sandagers wrasse (Coris sandageri) with its harem of females of all ages in the background, Poor Knights Islands.

f033010: a young mosaic moray (Enchelicore ramosus) looks frightening with its many sharp teeth, some of which planted in the middle of its mouth.

**Amazing mammals**
f035502: three seal pups (Arctocephalus forsteri) chasing each other in a protected cove of Kapiti Island.	f035222: a mother fur seal (Arctocephalus forsteri) repeatedly dived down to make eye contact with the diver and his buddy. Photo taken with macro lens.

f026437: a New Zealand fur seal (Arctocephalus forsteri) bull is not a small animal, and obviously daunting to the freediver above, who is not acquainted with their speed and agility.

f210210: New Zealand fur seal (Arctocephalus forsteri) sleeping

f210210: a New Zealand fur seal (Arctocephalus forsteri) sleeping in utter delight of doing nothing after a harrowing hunt in the sea.

**Habitats**
f035917: a stand of mature stalked kelp (Ecklonia radiata) seems to dwarf the distant diver.	f033932: an amazing kelp garden of various varieties of brown kelps at Mayor Island.	f024006: Bernie's Cave at the Poor Knights Islands has an air bubble reflecting the entering diver. One can take a breath of air from it.

**Shapes that can't move around**
f031506: a deep archway at the Kermadec Islands is home to a variety of frugally living life forms: tube corals (tubastrea sp), purple gorgoneans and feather stars (Crinoid sp).	f032823: a colony of zoanthid anemones has killed and colonised a gorgonean branch, looking very much as if they constructed it themselves.

**Adventure underwater**
f029214: a long tailed stingray (Dasyatis tethidis) takes off from its resting place in the sand, followed by a freediver.	f029221: As a female long tailed stingray (Dasyatis tethidis) swims out of the bay, carefully retaining the sand on her back, an eager snorkeldiver follows her along.

f031613: very large spotted black grouper (Epinephalus daemelii)

f031613: a snorkel diver collects all her courage to pat this very large spotted black grouper (SBG) (Epinephelus daemelii) on its snout. Once they overcome their fear too, these fish become very inquisitive.

f022825: a large sand octopus (Octopus gibbsi) has withdrawn inside a disused cray pot to escape from the diver. Inside its web it is cannibalising one of its own kind.

**The human form**
f023730: a nude female diver takes the plunge in the rather cold but clear waters of the Poor Knights Islands.	f023422: 'Free Ascent': a nude female leisurely makes her way back to the surface after a deep plunge.

**Beach fun**
f015827: a girl stands knee deep in the water, hand-feeding the many blue maomao (Scorpis violaceus) by the beach of the Goat Island marine reserve.	f990424: children having beach fun, sliding off the steep dunes on dad's boogie board. The dunes here have been planted densely in Spinifex dune grass. The sand is a mix of white quartz and black ironsand. Muriwai.

f990810: Fishermen retrieving an aluminium runabout in the mist of a gloomy day over Opito Bay, Coromandel.

f981208: childrren playing in a rugged coastal tree

f981208: childrren playing in a rugged coastal pohutukawa tree (Metrosideros excelsa) near Cornwallis, Auckland.

**Fishing**
f200917: fishermen at dawn fishing the long groynes of the Nerang River near Surfers Paradise, Queensland.	f014336: for those who have little time but much money, a helicopter lifts them conveniently to otherwise inaccessible places such as here at the mouth of the Whangamumu Harbour near the Bay of Islands.

**Degradation**
f212614: the fairy penguin (Eudyptula minor) is the northernmost of all southern penguins. Life in the sea is hard for them, hence their high natural mortality, but recently poisonous plankton blooms have made their plight worse. Finding a dead one is always sad.	f016803: dense plankton blooms can absorb all the light in the sea, killing the kelp forests below in darkness. This extensive kelp bed died in 1993 (Ecklonia radiata). Goat Island marine reserve.

f982102: 270 pilot whales (Globicephala melaena) died tragically on Stewart Island because they are unfamiliar with coasts, tides and beaches.

f960508: dirty water in the Goat Island marine reserve.

f960508: runoff from farmland and wherever soil is cut, washes into rivers and then into the sea. It causes severe harm to marine life, such as here in the Goat Island marine reserve. Because of such threats, coastal marine reserves can no longer work.

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