The Invasion

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Monday, November 7, 2011 | 5 photos

I consider myself an active conservationist. I have a degree in Marine Biology, and my current job to SCUBA dive with the US National Park Service and remove an invasive species: Lionfish. These fish have been introduced into waters around the U.S. and have become a major problem within the past 10 years.

Doing this job has given me a unique opportunity to spend many hours underwater, often with a camera in my hand. These photos are just a few that represents a facet of people who spend their time removing lionfish in-order to protect our reefs.

By telling this story, I hope to show people that conservation and recreation often go hand-and-hand. I am extremely passionate about protecting and preserving the world’s natural environments, and what better way to do so than creating awareness though photos. Humans are extremely visual people, and by seeing photos, they can relate to that subject much more than by simply reading a story.

My goal in life is to combine my two passions and work as both a photographer and a biologist, bringing issues to a relatable arena and motivating people to get involved.

I hope that this scholarship would help refine my photography skills, as well as, provide fuel for my photography passion, which has been somewhat neglected due to the hands-on nature of my job. (It’s a bit difficult to handle a pole-spear and a camera simultaneously underwater).

I find photography a soothing trade, and can often be found, camera in hand, watching an animal for long periods of time, waiting for the right shot. While all the photos I showed were taken underwater, I consider myself relatively new at underwater photography, and been shooting top-side since I was 12 years old. I hope you enjoyed the photos, and maybe learned a little bit along the way.