Sharing passion for the marine environment by providing a visual experience of life at locations visited

Colin’s connection with the ocean began in childhood- surfing waves, freediving for crayfish, and collecting fish for his first marine aquarium at just 12 years old. On his early travels to remote destinations, he often wished for a camera to capture the underwater world he was experiencing.

As a dive instructor, his passion for marine life deepened. In 2001, with his first underwater camera, he won a gold medal for one of his very first images — sparking a lifelong dedication to underwater photography. Through the lens, Colin found a way to preserve and share the beauty of the sea with a far greater survival rate than his youthful aquariums, though today it is broader environmental pressures that threaten much marine life.

Colin co-founded and chaired SEAFANZ, a society devoted to underwater photography, using imagery to promote awareness of the fragile marine environment. His goal remains the same: to inspire a greater consciousness of the ocean’s importance and vulnerability by offering viewers a moment of escape and connection with life below the surface.

His underwater photographic journeys have taken him well beyond his home country of New Zealand- to the Galápagos Islands, Solomon Islands, the South Pacific, Mexico, the Malay Archipelago, and southern Africa. In recent years, Colin has also embraced aerial perspectives, using low-level drone technology to complement his underwater imagery and reveal the ocean’s patterns from above.