Henry — san diego.
I'm 22. I shoot the California ocean — kelp, blue water, pinnipeds, surf. Everything you see was taken with one breath.
I grew up on the water and I picked up a camera at 17 because every dive ended with me trying to describe what I'd seen to people who'd never been under.
Photos were faster. Now I post almost daily on social, sell prints in small editions, and a portion of everything I make funds kelp restoration off Palos Verdes.
I work mostly solo, sometimes with a boat captain, occasionally on assignment. If you have an idea, write to me. I read everything.
Bought the housing.
Used Aquatica, off a guy in Long Beach. Forty-seven dives that year, mostly La Jolla, mostly bad photos. Started showing my dad what was actually down there.
Mailed the first one.
A moray frame, 11×14, $85, to a stranger in Oakland. Started the print shop the next week. One hundred eighty-four dives. Started keeping the field log.
Got the cover.
A seal portrait ran on the Bay Nature Spring issue. Doubled the gear, halved the bad photos. Two hundred ninety-six dives. Stopped saying I was "trying" to do this for a living.
And it kept going.
First conservation grant, from a kelp-restoration nonprofit on the Palos Verdes shelf. Four hundred thirteen dives so far this year. Still La Jolla most weekends. Still mostly the same kelp.