But not the in the way you might think. This image is actually a montage, carefully crafted by combining two photographs. In addition to taking photographs, we retouch photographs, and create photographic-looking digital images, presenting startling scenes that exist only our imagination--or yours. If you have an idea for an illustration (a Jellyfish capturing a submarine, perhaps), a photo you'd love to see, but nobody could ever take with a camera (like a Whale Shark in an aquarium), or something better than anything we could think of, call us at (831) 335-4849, or drop us an email. We're available to create these images for your ad, magazine, book, or just a picture on your wall. So how did we do it? The hammerhead shark photo was taken at Darwin Island in the Galapagos using a housed SLR camera with a 50mm macro lens and a pair of Ikelite strobes very much like the ones in this photo. A picture taken a hemisphere away in California's Channel Islands, provided a single strobe and a dive computer. These were removed from their background, then the strobe was duplicated, flipped, rotated, and carefully placed in position to appear to be in the shark's mouth. Details like the frayed wrist strap and bare wires were painted in by hand. This image won 2nd place in the Creative division of the 1998 Environmentally aware Photographic Image Competition (EPIC). This is a prestigious contest, with top competitors, so we're proud of the achievement. As the 1st place recipient was a video, "Camera Shark" was the top still image! (You can check all the winners at the EPIC site. Click on "Creative" when you get there to see the announcement about "Camera Shark.")

...into these vivid illustrations?

We retouched these photos of rare fish for author
and Marine Biologist Dan Gotshall. To learn more, see the
page on our retouching services.