How did your interest in wildlife arise and especially for the subaquatic one?
I had a special connection with animals since I was a child, they were great companions to me. Nature has always amazed me. When I started diving, and later became a dive instructor, I discovered a whole new world and I needed to show people what was there below. A blue ambience, so many colorful animals, corals, textures, caves, it was like being on another planet.
How do you describe your journey as a photographer and a person?
I never planned to be a photographer, on the contrary, photography has found me. As I was impressed by nature photography became the natural tool for me to express myself and show how I feel in the presence of a sunset, a manta ray or a light beam coming through the blue water. I’m far away from producing the ideal photos I would like to produce, but I think this is not only about quality and standards for me, it goes beyond: it is part of a process and a personal development adventure. Photography is my way to get to know myself more and more, every day. Although photos are something for others to see, it comes from the deepest corners of yourself
What is your view on Nature Conservation? How can we, as wildlife photographers, help to protect our Mother Nature?
I think we are highly aware of the problems, but most of us are still disconnected.
The world is experiencing a global crisis, as humans, we are contaminating, polluting, destroying, and extinguishing animal species with our daily habits. I feel we should question our relationship with nature much more deeply and responsibly. As wildlife photographers I believe we have a great chance to wake people up from distractions, to send a clear message, to show them there are many sentient beings besides us that have the same interest in living, just like ourselves.
I was often in touch with animals, but I could not make a connection between my habits and the suffering of many of them. When I was diving twice a day, I could see the different behaviors in fish. Having fun and making profit out of the ocean and still eating fish was a great personal contradiction that led me to quit eating fish. 90% of the big fish of the planet were gone by 2006 according to a UN Report.
We cannot deny the terrible impact that eating animals has on the planet. It’s responsible for 14% of the green gas emissions, deforestation in high scale, both leading to climate change, water usage, habitat degradation and a big decrease of some of the wild species as well. Overfishing and ghost fishing, plus plastic contamination are destroying the ocean’s life.
It is fact that using animals is cultural, but I don’t think it is right, and I became a vegan which made me feel I was in the right place, where I wanted to be.
Through my photographic work I hope to get people to think how wonderful animals are. I also hope to inspire others to realize that the best conservation effort we can make is not to support animal exploitation in any way.
Can you give our readers the best underwater wildlife photography tips? Do you have any recommendations on settings or gear for underwater wildlife photography?
Underwater photography might be very different depending what you want to shoot, big or small animals, ambience, shipwrecks.
The common rule is to get as close as you can. Water is 800 times denser than air and we need to minimize the distance between the lens and the subject in order to have sharpness, get good strobe coverage and reduce backscatter.
Get the right lens, macro, or wide angle. You can use a 60mm or 100mm for underwater macro shots and 10-17 or similar for wide angle photography.
If you have the chance, buy a housing for your camera that is not acrylic, something strong and reliable. Make sure you can access all the manual settings of the camera (you want to have the capacity to change all the important values underwater).
Use artificial light, two good strobes are ideal since natural light gets filtered in the first 5 meters/15 feet of depth. Be careful with the position of the strobes in order to avoid backscatter (lightening the particles suspended in the water).
Be patient. Underwater photography is still wildlife photography. Being calm and waiting for the right moment applies to underwater shooting as well.
Get to know every species’ behavior. It will give you best chances and also it will stop you from interfering with natural behaviors.
Be respectful. The best photo is worthless if we leave a damaged environment or a stressed animal behind it.
Be a great diver before you start with underwater photography. Being able to control your buoyancy is crucial to be a good photographer and minimize our impact in the underwater environment. Keep it safe, underwater photography is a multi-task practice. Be safe, be aware of your non decompression limits, breathing gas consumption and safety stops. You can always go back to another wonderful dive.
What plans do you have in the future related to Wildlife Photography?
I would like to start doing macro underwater photography and visit many diving spots in Argentina. Going back to Asia is always a dream and I also would like to visit the Red Sea for the first time. As an activist for animal rights I would love to become an animal photojournalist.
Tell us something about the gears you use.
I use a Canon DSLR camera, she’s an oldie but I can afford to replace it in case the system floods. I use a Tokina 10-17mm lens for wide angle photography. I’m a Sea & Sea user for housing with 2 strobes with optic cables.
