Featured Photographer - Thomas Peschak / April 23, 2015 by Felix Leander

My dad always said you need to get close to your subjects...Thomas Peschak with Tiger Shark in South Africa.  Photo by Wolfgang Leander 2007 — My dad always said you need to get close to your subjects...Thomas Peschak with Tiger Shark in South Africa. Photo by Wolfgang Leander 2007

My old man wrote this about Thomas Peschak years back: "In his field, wildlife and shark conservation photography, Thomas is, in my and many others' opinion, one of the best - world-wide."

Thomas with large Tiger Shark in South Africa.  Photo by Wolfgang Leander 2007 — Thomas with large Tiger Shark in South Africa. Photo by Wolfgang Leander 2007

While I have not had the pleasure in meeting Thomas (we have corresponded) - my father was able to spend a lot of time with him in the water in Aliwal Shoal, South Africa, freediving and photographing tiger sharks. Then already an accomplished photographer, Thomas has risen above most capturing stunning wildlife images and is a contributing photographer to National Geographic.

The now famous Great White shark and kayak photo by Thomas Peschak

But what makes Thomas so special, beyond his photography, is his involvement in conservation. "Thomas believes that the combined force of photojournalists and conservation NGOs is very powerful. In the past he has worked as the official photographer of WWF-SA and the Chief Photographer for the Save our Seas Foundation. He continues working with NGOs on a regular basis, collaborating often with Pacific Wild, the Manta Trust and WWF." He now is the director of conservation at Save our Seas Foundation

Be sure to follow his Instagram feed - https://instagram.com/thomaspeschak/ and visit his website at: http://www.thomaspeschak.com/ and http://saveourseas.com/

Anatomy of the OceanicDreams Logo / March 1, 2015 by Felix Leander

In 2003 we commissioned a friend and colleague at the time, Guto Nicolucci, to develop the OceanicDreams brand and website. The logo went through many variations, none of which really captured the essence of what we wanted it to communicate. I challenged Guto that the logo needed to represent freediving with a focus on sharks. We supplied him with a lot of photographs and hoped that the next round of creative would be on target…it was.

Guto combined elements of two images (see below) - the first is that of my father freediving in The Bahamas during the 70s approaching a large Great Hammerhead shark. The original photo was taken by a friend of the family - Lyn Nelson somewhere close to Nassau. The second element was taken from a photography my dad took in the Galapagos during one of his trips of a Galapagos Shark.

Wolfgang Leander freediving and approaching hammerhead (not to spear) in The Bahamas during the 70s.  Image by: Lyn Nelson — Wolfgang Leander freediving and approaching hammerhead (not to spear) in The Bahamas during the 70s. Image by: Lyn Nelson

Galapagos Shark - Galapagos Islands.  Image by: Wolfgang Leander — Galapagos Shark - Galapagos Islands. Image by: Wolfgang Leander

Both elements were traced and are the silhouette of actual subjects - in this case Wolfgang Leander in the 70s and a Galapagos Shark. The circle around both represents the connection between Wolf, the ocean, and sharks… and that is how the logo came to be.

OceanicDreams logo by: Guto Nicolucci

Logan Mock-Bunting Captures Freediving Competition / February 24, 2015 by Felix Leander

Came across a Wired article about freediving yesterday that features the photography of Logan Mock-Bunting. Logan was in the Bahamas late last year to document the 2014 Vertical Blue freediving competition. He captured the ups and downs (literally and figuratively) of the participants - from the celebrations to the black outs.

Shallow water black-out.  Image by: Logan Mock-Bunting — Shallow water black-out. Image by: Logan Mock-Bunting

Be sure to check out his work at www.loganmb.com.

Featured Photographer - Scott Campbell / January 29, 2015 by Felix Leander

Just a little less than two decades ago there was only a handful of freedivers that were capturing moments underwater that were focused on large marine life. Aside from the Nikonos V, u/w cameras were bulky, expensive, and did have the high resolution as they do today. And freediving was just starting to go through a revolution and become more popular.

One of those freedivers / photographers is Scott Campbell. While I am not sure what gear he uses, all his photography is black and white and his subjects include sharks, whales, pelagic fish among others. I remember seeing his images in the early 2000s - the ones that struck a cord was that of a oceanic white tip (he was doing it before it was "in"). His photographs are raw, rough, yet beautiful - a direct result of the ocean he mostly dives in - The Pacific.

The fact that Scott spent 5 years competing on the US Freediving Team and set numerous records for depth and duration have worked in his favor - being comfortable in the ocean have allowed him to approach animals in ways that a SCUBA diver could never.

Have a look at his gallery / website: http://www.on1breath.com

Scott definitely was a trail blazer...