Swimming with Sea Turtles

I love photographing the small, beautiful underwater animals when I scuba dive. However, there is just something so fun and satisfying, busting out the wide angle, and tackling a big, charismatic subject like a sea turtle.

I have honed in my sea turtle photography over the years. I actually prefer to do most of it without the scuba gear. I enjoy getting their photo right as they dive back down from the surface. It allows me to paint the background with the surreal patterns of the surface where the water meets the sky.

Here in Hawaii we have pretty clear water, which also really helps with this kind of wide angle photography. This probably wouldn't have been possible 50 years ago, before sea turtles were federally protected. There were hardly any left in the islands. But now I can almost guarantee to see one if you know where to look.

This young, good looking green sea turtle was swimming out in deep water, very close to where I live in Maui.

The flat calm conditions at the surface made for an almost glass-like background, with the vision of clouds adding to the beautiful diving turtle.

Sea Turtle and a sunburst. The turtle would have just been a dark silhouette if I hadn't of used underwater strobe lights to light up his underside. This is a hawksbill sea turtle off Bali, Indonesia.

I was lucky enough to have a model for this shot. She dove down perfectly so I could naturally frame her and the nearby sea turtle using the reef.

Hawksbill with a bit more of a sunburst effect.

I always like getting shots of the turtles coming towards me. I had to position myself out ahead of the turtle and divers so I would be in the right spot for this shot on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Extreme shallow water can allow me to use mostly natural light for these wide angle underwater shots.

Even a newbie snorkeler can have fun with sea turtles here in Hawaii.

All of these images were shot with a Canon 5d mark ii in an Ikelite underwater dome.

-Dai Mar