His love for the oceans began as a young child while reading books, watching the Discovery Channel and visiting Sea World a couple of times a year. At the age of 17 and ready to graduate High School, Mike decided to pursue his dream of swimming with sharks and dolphins, and take scuba lessons with his savings for the High School Prom. His first underwater camera was purchased the same week of his certification dives, in lieu of purchasing his own Scuba equipment.

His travels have taken him around the globe to exotic locales such as Fiji, Costa Rica, Bahamas, British Columbia, Philippines, and more. Mike can be found leading group trips around the world, as well as teaching Scuba and Underwater Imaging classes in Southern California.

Mike is currently shooting the Sony PMW-EX1 in a Gates Housing with Light and Motion Sunray 2000 LED lights and the Fathom Super Wide Port. For stills, he is shooting the Nikon D300 DSLR in a Sea & Sea MDX Housing with Dual YS-110a strobes for macro, and dual YS-250 strobes for Wide Angle, Ultralight arms and the Sea & Sea TTL Converter.

You can reach Mike by emailing him at mike@h2ophotopros.com

His love of the sea has taken him all over the world looking for ways to capture dynamic portraits of its creatures large and small. He hopes that through the viewing of these images people will someday learn to appreciate and understand the awesome beauty and fragile nature of the oceans and to ultimately change some of the detrimental practices of humankind toward the sea.

A native of California he spends much of his time diving and photographing the rich temperate waters of his home state but also travels abroad several months each year to create new images for his stock file. A Scuba Instructor since 1980, he picked up his first underwater camera that same year and slowly converted from underwater hunting to the challenges of underwater photography. It was the slower pace of observing and trying to approach marine life closely that helped him to see and understand the intricacies and miracles of the ocean ecosystem. As he learned to appreciate the living sea, his photographic skills also grew and now he is one of a fortunate few that earn a living as an underwater photographer.

In addition, some of his images are on display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Smithsonian Institute.
Andy’s camera ais comprised of 2 Canon 5D cameras with Sea & Sea Housings,