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Barefoot Wandering
@barefoot.wandering
Photographer based in Australia
I grew up on the east coast of Australia, nestled between the rainforest and the ocean. The beach always played a large role in my life – when I was a child, my parents would take my brother and me down to the ocean before school. I would swim and bodyboard watching the sun rise through the backs of waves. My first dive boat experience occurred when I was sixteen. I was enthralled by the world underneath the surface and yearned for the lifestyle of those who worked on the boat. I knew then and there that I wanted to spend my life on, in and around the ocean.
"My journey into photography came about through my travels."
For nearly all of my twenties I backpacked around the world. You can’t help but want to capture the beauty of our planet when you see all it has to offer. I only picked up my first proper camera 4 years ago and grew to love the art that it was possible to make with just the click of a button.
"Over time my two passions for the ocean and photography coalesced as I discovered the beauty of the underwater world as a SCUBA instructor."
I started out shooting underwater with a cheap knockoff $30 action camera. I became addicted quickly, and so invested some hard-earned savings in my first underwater housing and digital SLR. From there, I’ve never looked back and have spent all of my spare time either under the surface shooting, or researching more about photography and editing.
There’s something special about the ocean, sometimes scary, wild and untameable, sometimes peaceful and inviting, but always wondrous and full of adventure. On or under the ocean, I can feel at peace with the world, and I love to share my experiences as widely as possible through my photographs.
Over the years, I’ve noticed the changes that have been happening to our underwater world. Changes that most people would not be able to witness; the deterioration of the health of this fragile ecosystem. I couldn’t sit by and watch this happen without trying to do something. But proper action requires education, and so I decided to start studying marine science to be able to better protect this magical place. My studies have shown me just what a complex and interconnected system our oceans are, and how they affect our lives more than we’ve ever realised before.
A little while ago I was lucky enough to encounter an ornate eagle ray. Known as the unicorns of the ocean, these are one of the rarest creatures to find underwater. Worldwide, there have only ever been 60 confirmed sightings. (More people have summited Mount Everest than have seen one of these creatures.) While on the Ningaloo, I had been swimming with a manta ray for about half an hour when I noticed a large shape moving out of the corner of my eye. Swimming a little closer to it, I could not believe my eyes. The ornate eagle ray was massive, with its tail alone extending to 3 meters. I managed to keep up with it for about twenty minutes, shooting photos. I don’t think I’ve ever been so out of breath from amazement, wonder and swimming so fast.
"When I finally stopped, I honestly thought I might pass out."
"Of all the places I’ve been diving and photographing, the Ningaloo Reef on the west coast of Australia stands out above all others."
The biodiversity and megafauna here are outstanding. From the biggest creatures such as manta rays, whale sharks, humpback whales, tiger sharks, sea turtles and hammerheads to the tiniest of nudibranchs and sea horses, you never know what you’ll see next on the Ningaloo.
One time I took my small boat out to one of our usual dive sites frequented by the tourist boats I was working on and noticed a large congregation of sea birds diving down to catch fish. Swimming over to investigate, I was greeted by the sight of around one hundred sharks hunting what is known as a ‘baitball’. A huge school of thousands of fish corralled into a tight ball as the sharks feed. After half an hour of swimming on the outskirts and watching the sharks in their element, I finally mustered up the courage to enter into the middle of the baitball. I was rewarded with one of the most amazing and raw experiences of my life. The small bait fish part around you, surrounding you completely and only staying thirty centimetres away, blocking out everything else from your sight, even the sunlight. Then, without warning, a shark will burst through, swimming straight at you, and you have only a split second to react. These encounters made for some of the best photos I’ve ever taken, and allowed me a view into the ways of sharks that most people would never get in their lifetime. They are not mindless killing machines. Sharks are apex predators, evolved over hundreds of millions of years. They are not mindless killing machines out to get humans. Not once in the middle of the chaos of the baitball did a shark try to bite me, they saw me as an equal, another creature sharing their space. I wish more people would have the opportunity to see sharks in their natural element, as sentient creatures that are beautiful in their every movement. Perhaps this would help sway the negative view most people have of them, and this is something that I seek to share in my photography.
For me, the ocean has always been a dreamlike world, where the lines between reality and magic are blurred. I seek to share this feeling through my edits, to bring an almost surreal feeling to the shots. I want to entice the viewer to go out and experience this magical world, to see it for the incredible realm that it is.
Photography is a means to share the beauty of the underwater world with the wider public. I want to make the public enthralled with our ocean and its beautiful inhabitants. I want people to care, so that they too want to protect this world. In a word, I want to inspire conservation of our oceans. For millennia, we have viewed the sea as limitless, a commodity that we can take from without recourse. Only now, it seems, are we coming to realise that our oceans are finite, and that they are in dire need of our help. Every day we are making decisions that will either help or destroy this habitat. I want to showcase the amazing creatures that call the oceans home, so everybody will want to start to make conscious decisions about things like the fish they consume and the plastic they use.
"We need to do everything we can to ensure future generations are able to enjoy the magical wonder of the underwater world like we can today."
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