Photomanipulation nominee

I began photographing whales underwater in 2005.

This series of montages is derived from my original photographs. I'm attempting here to contribute to the essential story-telling that helps support human understanding and compassion for these extraordinary beings. Each image symbolises encounters and fleeting glimpses that I’ve experienced in their company

In this series:

+A perilous journey begins for a humpback mother and her calf. To reach food, they must pass survive the gauntlet of the open sea and skilled predators, such as orca.

+Under a blood-moon, with only ghosts of whalers to trouble them, humpbackS return to a gulf from which they had been hunted to local extinction.

+ Orca enter a flooded glacial valley.

+An upwelling from a sperm whale’s flukes creates a moment of clarity amidst the chaos of surface turbulence. Through that window into each other’s worlds, a sub-surface whale and I make eye-contact.

+A solitary false orca, confronted by a squad of Rizzo’s dolphin, flees into the abyss. beneath my feet. I could imagine the fear, of being singled out, in the darkness, of a being that depends on the familial bonds of its clan. But perhaps, at times like that, we are not truly alone.

I'm a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in the UK, and a Member of the Explorers Club of New York.

The book, "Wakatobi: Conservation. In depth" written by me and co-illustrated with my wife, Robyn earned the Underwater Photography Book of the Year at the international UPY Awards in 2021.

Our book, Looking for Whales, was published by Halstead Press in 2019 and endorsed by Australian Geographic.

• I have repeatedly been an Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year finalist, and earned the 2016 award for the year’s best animal portrait.

• Natural History Museum (UK): Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007:
Fin whale Runner-up: Endangered species category

• Travel Photographer of the Year 2015; Finalist: Highly Commended

• Monochrome Photography Awards 2015 Honourable Mention 2015

• Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2017
Humpback and calf. Finalist: Animal Behaviour Category

• Windland Smith Rice International Awards 2017. Highly Honoured

• Natural History Museum (UK): Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017
'The look of a whale'. Finalist: Animal Portraits. This image was selected amongst the 100 best images of the Year by the Museum and toured the world in the Museum's travelling exhibition.