Scott Soens...

Scott Soens is a surf/lifestyle photographer with a strong character and a wonderful outlook on life. Having assisted various professional photographers, including Bruce Webber, he set out on his own and has along the way added cinematography to his skills set.

From the video above I see that he is very driven, although maintaining a level of authenticity which is quite rare these days in a world where a big ego normally win hands down.

Take sometime to go through the images on his website and the wonderful video above does give a good look into the world of Scott Soens, it may also leave you feeling a bit envious of his lifestyle (don't say I didn't warn you)  ;-)

Extreme Fish Photography...

Marc Montocchio is a specialist in capturing unique and stunning images of ocean wildlife in their natural habitat. His hands on approach often leads to him getting into all sorts of extreme situations with the sea creatures he is trying to photograph.

Born in Durban, South Africa, Marc now travels the world in search of adventure and images. In the video below you will see a 'behing the scenes' look at his latest project of capturing Blue Marlins being fished in Bermuda, check it out, its well worth a look and you'll see just how dangerous things can get.

(via fstoppers)

TPOTY 2010...

This fascinating image of a young boy playing with his 'pet' shark in Indonesia, was one of the images that won the 'Ecounters' section of the recently released 'Travel Photographer of the Year Awards 2010'.

It's well worth checking out this BBC audio slideshow that gives a good overview of the photo's along with commentary from Chris Coe the founder of the yearly competition which started in 2003.

Underwater in Black and White...

The underwater world is normally presented as a blaze of colours, so its curious to see a body of work which is predominately black and white.

Wayne Levin, a Hawaiian photographer has an impressive range of images on his website that amongst other things, shows not only the normal inhabitants (resident spirits) of the kingdom beneath the waves, but also the underwater people.

I find these images having been stripped of their colour and reduced only to tones to be extremely powerful.

Another dimension to Photography: Water

I like to spend my time wisely (not really but it sounds good) so I try to combine two of my hobbies, photography and diving together to do underwater photography :-)

There is lots of info out there on the web. But there is one particular very nice online magazine called Underwater Photography . It has many beautiful photos (even for non-divers!) and items on material and many tips/tricks. (no, i'm not getting anything to say that).

btw. above picture was taken by me last year in one of the dutch lakes ;-)