Spinner dolphins.

‎45 minute drive to the surf break... No surf!

1.75 hour drive to the west side of the island...
My freedive Fins break!

Wait! Dolphins! Grab my duck fins and the day turns epic!

A spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) breaches in front of tour boat

The bay the dolphins are located in is nothing but sand, and as I am waiting for the dolphins to pass* by me again, I notice the sand floor is littered with odd markings. I imagine they are from the dolphins digging their snouts in search of food.

Odd markings in sand

I take a closer look and sure enough, Crab shrapnel is everywhere.

discarded crab shell

* (hint) Like most animals, chasing a dolphin will lead to it moving away from you. Rarely will it actually result in closing the distance between you and the dolphin.

Xcel 3mm Hydroflex: my 1st commercial shoot since my return to the Island

The hardest part about this photo shoot wasn't diving to 80' feet on a breath hold. It wasn't worrying about the composition or lighting while I had eight stories of water above me. It was trying to convince my old dive buddy to pass along my estimate.

You see, about the same time I left for photography school my old dive buddy got a low level sponsorship with Xcel. He gets "x" amount of free gear a year and in return he sends them (mostly) self-took portraits, and promotes his awesome gear across the web.

From my perspective it was a straight forward request; company ask for photos, professional photographer forwards estimate with reasonable day rate and fees.

However, I can see from his point, "a company is going to spend...Whoa! That much to take photos of me!?" It's pretty incredible that a school teacher can have the support of a large company like Xcel.

 It took a few emails, but he was finally swayed to forward my estimate.

Once the estimate was approved it was all about getting down to business.

Opelu:
During our warm up a large school of 2000+ bait fish drifted into us. As I floated at the jet ski getting ready for a warm up dive, a turtle lazily swims through the bait fish as he ascends to the surface. In one cohesive unit the opelu circle around the turtle, giving me an idea.

Xcel diver sims through huge school of fish

The first day we had horrible visibility and a slight current. When the vis is bad the submarine stays at a deeper depth. A little too deep for me and my camera. If it wasn't for the opelu, the day would have been a complete wash.


Day 2:

The reshoot went amazing, great vis, no current, and a "shallower" depth.

Xcel diver sees what submarine sees

Surfacing from the depths below.

Xcel freediver ascends from depths normally reserved for submarines 

Lifestyle:
45 minutes the following evening was set for the lifestyle shots:
1 (beautiful) assistant,
2 speedlights,
some great results:

Xcel diver prepares for his dive. Photograph by Derek Broussard

Working with Xcel was a great experience. Not only does the company produce superb equipement, the art director was a pleasure to work with.  Hopefully more jobs will come in the future.

Breath-holds in Random Places, Part 1: The sharks den

A couple days ago, I was finishing my dive at a local beach with a couple statics (breath hold without swimming). Laying there underwater with the sun light bouncing above my head, and large fish swimming around me, an idea filters into my head.

"How cool would it be to get video of me holding my breath in all these random places!"

Breath-holds in Random Places (BRP): The idea is to get video of me doing statics underwater, in unusual places, in the presence of wild predators, or with interesting scenery.

My first Video of BRP:

Ethics, why we should be doing more then just touching

Freediver pets a galapagos shark
©Derek Broussard

As a child we have experiences that we carry with us for the rest of our lives,  and form us into the adults we are today. These experiences do not have to be big, they can indeed be very small, a look given to you after a bad or good deed, being teased, or maybe just a story. 

Back in kindergarden I had one of these character altering experiences. We had a guest speaker at the school.  I really can't remember why she was invited to speak at the school, but I do remember one of the storys she presented. 

It was of her garden. This guest speaker had a green thumb and loved her garden. Every morning rain or shine she would be out in her garden. On an early spring morning she saw a baby spider weave a web in-between two leaves in her favorite plant...her tomato plant I think it was. Being a serious gardener she knew that the spider would only benefit the life of her most favorite plant, so she let this little spider's home stay. 

Common Garden Spider
©Derek Broussard

The next morning as she was maintaining her garden, methodically making her way to her favorite plant, she was struck with an idea, "If the spider helps my tomatoes, then helping the spider helps me." So by the time she made it to the tomato bush she had caught a plant devouring insect to feed to the spider. She watched in awe as the aphid was quickly subdued by the spiders and eagerly devoured. 

Every morning she continued her routine, with the added task of feeding her spider. A week into the feeding, she said that the spider which she apply named "Charlotte" was able to recognize her and would run out from under her shaded leaf into her web. By the end of the month, she was able to pet Charlotte before it was fed. 

The spider was officially habituated to her presence. 

Humans have a unique gift where we are able to understand and interact with animals. 

Shaun Ellis lived with a wild wolf pack in Idaho for two years. 

Charlie Vandergraw lives with grizzly bears 6 months out of the year

Some sharks have been known to act like your fellow canine and nudge divers to be petted. I've personally seen galapagos sharks recognize a certain diver and nuzzle their nose into them to be petted .

You'll find most people believe that we should leave animals alone, and that any interaction will change their behavior. Well I got news, our over population of earth is already changing nature. In a bad way.

As a shark diver, I believe that interacting with sharks helps the public views of the animal. When Mr. Ellis lived with the wolves he learned valuable information that helped farmers with alternatives in protecting their livestock.

Humans have an innate ability to understand, adapt, and transform behaviors to fit in with the animal kingdom. We should stop fighting against nature. Learn to adapt, except and excel with our world.