David Doubilet
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David Doubilet is one of the most famous underwater photographers[citation needed]. He was born in New York in 1946, and started taking photos underwater at the young age of 12. His work started with a Brownie Hawkeye in a rubber anesthesiologist bag to keep the water out of the camera. During his summer holidays, he spent his time along the New Jersey coast. He also spent much time in the Caribbean, which had a large variety of underwater wild life for him to photograph. While he was a dive instructor in a tiny bay in the Bahamas, he found his motivation to capture the beauty of the sea and everything in it.
His goal is to "redefine photographic boundaries" every time he enters the water. This has helped him achieve some of his greatest shots. In order to capture all the underwater wildlife, he needs to take several cameras with him on each of his trips. The main obstacle in underwater photography is how it is impossible to change lenses or film underwater. In order to get the shots he does, a wide variety of cameras are a must.
Doubilet’s ingenuity lead him to the invention of the split lens camera. This essentially allowed him to take pictures above and below water simultaneously. This worked by having a separate focus point on the top half and bottom half of the scene. When the picture is taken, it is recorded onto the same negative.
Doubliet estimates that he has spent well over half his life under water. Since he was twelve, he has spent more than two thirds of his waking hours under water[citation needed]. Considered as the worlds leading under water photographer, he has introduced countless amount of people to the mysterious of the under water depths[citation needed]. He has explored remote depths, barrier reefs, and exotic marine life. He has shot well over sixty stories for National Geographic and published numerous books on his own. His most recent was a photo shot in Cuban waters entitled "The Last Caribbean Refuge."
Doubilet graduated from Boston University in 1970. He wanted to capture the beauty of the ocean. His education has also helped him his writing. He is well known for his reports on the sea and has written many books in recent years, one of which includes Australia’s Great Barrier Reef by National Geographic. He has received many awards for his works, such as The Explorers Club's Lowell Thomas Awards and the Lennart Nilsson Award for scientific photography (2001)[1].
Doubilet lives in Clayton, New York. Life in this small town near the St. Lawrence River is about old wooden boats, a nature studio to further his passion of the water. His second home is the small coastal town of Dekolder, South Africa.
