For many years now, my Alaska photography ambitions have conflicted with my underwater photography ambitions. However, this summer I made time in my busy schedule to visit the Bahamas and swim with wild Atlantic spotted dolphins. I joined a trip offered by Captain Scott of Dolphin Dream the first week of August and was not disappointed. Certainly, wildlife photography is never guaranteed, but through persistence and sheer luck I was able to photograph some beautiful portraits of the dolphins over the course of my week-long trip. During the dolphin encounters, they often came close enough to touch while gracefully playing amongst our group of snorkelers. I typically swam on the outside of the group, so that I could photograph the dolphins without people in the scene. I created this image during the first few exciting days of the trip by diving down 20′ towards the sandy bottom as this dolphin curiously swam by and checked me out. I used my Canon 5dmkII and 17-40mm f4 lens with a +3 diopter in my new Aquatech 5DmkII housing with 8″ dome port. This image is cropped from the original and required a bit of processing to remove the cyan cast of the water using Aperture 3.0 and Photoshop CS5.
Click here to purchase a print of this image.
Have to comment here again, it is your capture of the moment of connection between the photographer and his subject that adds yet another dimension to your photographs.