UNDER THE OCEANS …

Hello! I am a young budding underwater photographer. I created this website to share my work from trips I was lucky enough to take around the world. Being a good underwater photographer takes a lot of practice, starting with precise control of your own buoyancy, so your camera does not bob as you are taking a picture. It also requires bright light and appropriate filters as colors starting from the red end of the spectrum start fading as you go deeper. And of course it requires cooperation of the subjects being photographed - which can be skittish, shy, extremely small, extremely fast, or quite large! I hope my work inspires other budding young underwater photographers to pursue this hard to master hobby. You can see I still have a ways to go in terms of achieving the right lighting and focus. For a long time, I chased an elusive goal of photographing a pygmy seahorse, a creature that I have learned is renowned for being difficult to capture among underwater photographers. After years of trying and training my eye with other underwater pictures on how to spot them among the coral they like blending in with, I finally got lucky and snapped a close-up picture of one during a dive in the Indian Ocean. I believe even the imperfect pictures do their job of stimulating awe, appreciation, and respect for the fragile seascape and inspire us land dwellers to care for and preserve our oceans.

For a glimpse of my work above the oceans with the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative, please check out my other website at: www.tateoverwater.com.