Breath Receipts

"Every time I go scuba diving, I exhale bubbles without giving much thought to photographing them. That changed one evening during a sunset shark dive. I had been capturing macro images of shark details, and as I paused for my safety stop, the golden-green rays of the setting sun pierced through the water. My attention shifted to my dive buddy’s exhaled air bubbles, rising gracefully toward the surface. Set against the dark, endless backdrop of the ocean drop-off, the contrast of light dancing on the bubbles caught my eye. Intrigued, I wondered how these fleeting, ever-changing shapes would look through my 100mm macro lens. I began photographing, mesmerized by the way each bubble formed a unique, fluid sculpture, never repeating itself. After more than 5,000 dives around the world, it amazed me that something so simple, so essential to every dive, had gone unnoticed. These bubbles, the very breath we give back to the sea, became a subject that reminded me of the beauty hidden in the small, often overlooked details of our underwater world."