Photo Gallery-Living Sea Images

Underwater Images (captured on film, mostly before 6/08)	Topside Images (captured on film)
Underwater Images (digital captures, 6/08 and later)	Topside Images (digital captures)

Digital composite images (montages) and Retouched Images

All Categories

Marc Shargel's photographic file contains images collected from around the world and under its oceans during the last 25 years, and he's adding new images regularly. Here's a listing of most subjects and locations represented. If you don't see what you're looking for in this list, try a custom search.

Marine Life Subjects
Abalone Algae Anchovies Anemones Angelfish Barnacles Barracuda Birds (All Species) Pelicans Gulls Boobies Albatrosses Others Black Sea Bass Blue Sharks Bryozoa Caves Chitons Coral Cowries Crinoids Divers Dolphins	Eels Fin Fish (All Regions) Northern California Fish North Central California Fish Central California Fish Southern California Fish Central California Fish Central California Fish Flounder Frog fish Garibaldi Gorgonians Great White Sharks Hammerhead Sharks Hydroids Iguanas Jacks Jack Mackerel Jellyfish Kelp Lobster	Manatees Manta Ray Molas (Sunfish) Moray Eels Nudibranchs Octopus Parrotfish Penguins Pompano Reef Fish Reefs Rockfish Salps Scallops Sea Cucumbers Sea Grasses Sea Lions Sea Stars Sea Turtles Seals	Seamounts Sharks (all species) Shrimp Siphonophores Snails Sponges Squid Stingrays Tunicates Urchins Wahoo Wildlife Whales Wolf Eels Worms Wrecks
Underwater Photography Locations
Big Sur Calif. Channel Islands California Coast	Caribbean Carmel, Calif. Cozumel Isl., Mexico	Farallon Islands Galapagos Archiepelago Guadalupe Island, Mexico Hawaii	Red Sea St. Lucia Soccoro / San Benedicto (Revillagigedos Archiepelago)

Travel, Scenic and Nature Photography Subjects
Caves Divers The David Elephant Seals Famous Artworks Flowers Giant Tortoises	Harbor Seals Iguanas Insects Landscapes Lava Mountains	The Parthenon Penguins Pyramids Rainforests Redwood forests Scenic Views	Sea Otters Sea Lions Sphinx Temples Wildlife
Travel, Scenic and Nature Photography Locations
Big Sur Channel Islands, Calif. California Coast Caribbean China Cozumel	Ecuador Egypt Elephant Seals Farallon Islands Florence Galapagos Islands Greece	Hong Kong Italy Mono Lake New Mexico San Francisco Sedona, Arizona High Sierra, California	Soccoro (Revillagigedos Archipelago) Thailand Tibet Yosemite

Do you miss our old gallery? Know just where to find what you're looking for through the old entrance? Don't worry, it's still here.

Important Note: Our Underwater and Scenic Photographs look best when displayed with the optimum monitor settings. Please take the time to check your monitor for accurate display before viewing our photos. Thank you!

Lumigenic Media Home Page

Marine Life Subjects
Abalone Algae Anchovies Anemones Angelfish Barnacles Barracuda Black Sea Bass Blue Sharks Bryozoa Caves Chitons Coral Cowries Crinoids Divers	Eels Fish Flounder Frog fish Garibaldi Gorgonians Great White Sharks Hammerheads Hydroids Iguanas Jacks Jack Mackerel Jellyfish Kelp Lobster Manta Ray	Molas (Sunfish) Moray Eels Nudibranchs Octopus Parrotfish Penguins Pompano Reef Fish Reefs Rockfish Salps Scallops Sea Cucumbers Sea Grasses Sea Stars Sea Turtles	Seamounts Sharks Shrimp Siphonophores Snails Sponges Squid Stingrays Tunicates Urchins Wahoo Wildlife Wolf Eels Worms Wrecks
Underwater Photography Locations
Big Sur Calif. Channel Islands California Coast	Caribbean Carmel, Calif. Cozumel Isl., Mexico	Farallon Islands Galapagos Archiepelago Guadalupe Island, Mexico Hawaii	Red Sea St. Lucia Soccoro / San Benedicto (Revillagigedos Archiepelago)

Travel, Scenic and Nature Photography Subjects
Caves Divers The David Elephant Seals Famous Artworks Flowers Giant Tortoises	Harbor Seals Iguanas Insects Landscapes Lava Mountains	The Parthenon Penguins Pyramids Rainforests Redwood forests Scenic Views	Sea Otters Sea Lions Sphinx Temples Wildlife
Travel, Scenic and Nature Photography Locations
Big Sur Channel Islands, Calif. California Coast Caribbean China Cozumel	Ecuador Egypt Elephant Seals Farallon Islands Florence Galapagos Islands Greece	Hong Kong Italy Mono Lake New Mexico San Francisco Sedona, Arizona High Sierra, California	Soccoro (Revillagigedos Archipelago) Thailand Tibet Yosemite

Finally, in addition to all the photography listed above, we offer photo retouching and digitally-created imagery. Our digitally created images start as photographs, then we use all the tricks and tools of computer wizardry to enhance and even warp reality. A few prize-winning examples of this craft are already in our file, and we're working on more. We'd love to create one of these reality-bending images specifically for you.

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A Word About Reality and Integrity

Our Digitally Manipulated Images are not “photographs.” Every photograph reflects, to some extent, the vision of the photographer. That said, most of us expect that when we look at a photo we are seeing a certain view of reality. Lumigenic Media’s Digitally Manipulated Images look like photos, but they display a reality that existed only in the artist’s imagination. Because we believe the integrity of photographic images is important, we will never present an image that has been digitally recomposed as a "photograph." We create our digital montages images to entertain, to amuse, even to startle, but not to deceive. We likewise encourage (and insist when possible) that all those who reproduce our Digitally Manipulated Images fully inform the viewing audience about the origin of what they are seeing.

We do adjust our photographs for best presentation. Every photographer since the imaging pioneers of the last century has had to make artistic choices about how they wanted their images to look. Decisions in the field or the darkroom (such as composition, exposure, lighting, cropping, contrast, and dodging or burning) have always affected the rendering of reality offered by the resulting photograph.

"Photographs" we display on the web, or supply to buyers in file form, have usually been adjusted using the digital equivalent of these traditional darkroom processes.

Indeed, our first challenge is to make the image file produced by the scanner look like the film that was scanned. Of course this is a highly subjective art (e.g. How much sharpening makes the file look as crisp as the original?) Beyond this, we frequently adjust contrast, and sometimes digitally burn or dodge a light or dark area to make a more pleasing image. We always try to retouch out any dust or dirt that was on the slide when it was scanned (a rare but annoying problem). Occasionally we will spot retouch spurious contents of the image, such as backscatter, to remove visual distractions. Our rule in this process is not to change the view of reality offered by the photograph, but to clarify and perhaps enhance it. Manipulations that help resolve an image from life are, in our opinion, part of the photographer’s art in making a photograph. Manipulations that result in an image that never occurred in life produce something that, in our opinion, should not be called a photograph. We call those products of our craft Digitally Manipulated Images.

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