ExplorersPhotography

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ExplorersPhotography UW Photography, Cinematography & Science
Founders:
UW Archaeologists/ AAUS ScientificDivers/ TDI Tech

We co-founded Explorers Photography (EP) with a shared vision—a platform to channel our deep passion for scuba diving, underwater photography, and science. Our mission is to inspire people to explore and intimately connect with the underwater world, making it feel more accessible and relatable. By fostering a deep relationship with the ocean, they aim to increase awareness of its significance and advocate for its preservation.

Excited to be showcasing a short film at the San Diego Undersea Film Exhibition (SDUFEX) this Saturday night! There will...
10/08/2026

Excited to be showcasing a short film at the San Diego Undersea Film Exhibition (SDUFEX) this Saturday night! There will be loads of amazing films you can come watch Friday (7-9pm) and Saturday (6-8pm). Come out and support those that love telling stories about our oceans! 🌊

Special thanks to the judges, organizers and our ocean community! Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

🎬 The bat ray is from a scene in our film - Voices of the Forest: Beneath Catalina’s Emerald Canopy! Come out to see the whole thing!

🐧 Upcoming 2028 Antarctica Citizen Science ExpeditionDates: Feb 26 - March 10, 2028Come explore the Antarctic Peninsula ...
10/05/2026

🐧 Upcoming 2028 Antarctica Citizen Science Expedition

Dates: Feb 26 - March 10, 2028

Come explore the Antarctic Peninsula and Weddell Sea with us! This is a hands on trip with super unique opportunities to hike amongst penguins and seals in places very few humans have been. We’ll get to explore by zodiac around towering icebergs and whales, and of course dive and snorkel in these surreal environments!

There will also be a team of renown polar scientists leading various citizen science projects so guests can actually participate and contribute to real world polar research!

Contact:
steven@explorersphotography
carmen@explorersphotography

Come find us and chat at the upcoming AAUS Symposium, San Diego Film Exhibition, or at Divescapes! See you soon! 🤿

Here are some shots from earlier this year on our Antarctic expedition with Blue Green Expeditions 🧊

It was awesome to be a part of this underwater immersive shoot at the oil rigs recently. The visibility was the best we’...
09/24/2026

It was awesome to be a part of this underwater immersive shoot at the oil rigs recently. The visibility was the best we’d seen it in a a long time and the currents were calm too! It made for some stunning and mysterious scenery. Check out the BTS images we shot. The team got some really amazing footage on the new Blackmagic URSA immersive camera in the Gates uw housing: Shoutout to Gates Underwater Products for making a solid neutrally buoyant housing for a beast of a camera. Stay tuned for updates on the release to Apple Vision Pro!
Team:
Producers: Trent Ellis Chad Shagren Joel Wilson
Freedivers/ On Camera: Captain Beard Viv ⋆☽⋆
Audio Supervisor: Mike Z Morrell
Behind The Scenes: Explorers Photography | Steven & Carmen
Boat Support: Steve Fitzpatrick
Boat: Bottom Scratcher
Location: Ellen & Elly Oil Rigs, Southern California

09/11/2026

OPY2026 is a wrap! So honored and stoked to be Highly Commended in Ocean Photographer of the Year for my shot of the Eye of the Giant Sea Bass and to have it exhibited and representing our local kelp forests of Catalina in London and around the world! It’s been an amazing 2 days surrounded by inspiring people and conversations. Thank you ! 🙏🏽🐟👁️🌿🌊

Tonight is the award ceremony for Ocean Photographer of the Year!More than anything, I’m proud that this photograph gets...
09/09/2026

Tonight is the award ceremony for Ocean Photographer of the Year!

More than anything, I’m proud that this photograph gets to bring a little piece of our local Catalina kelp forests to London and share it with the world.

The first image is my finalist photograph: the eye of a Giant Sea Bass.

Look closely and you’ll see tiny parasitic copepods clustered around its eye. These copepods are now understood to be host-specific to Giant Sea Bass. I love that this photograph begins with something so large, then reveals an entire hidden world in the details.

Giant Sea Bass were driven to incredibly low numbers in Southern California by the late 1970s and early 1980s. Today, after decades of protections, we’re fortunate enough to watch them slowly return, although they are still listed as critically endangered by the IUCN.

The kelp forests of Catalina have become an anchor for us and a place that continually gives us another reason to look closer, stay longer and ask more questions.

We started with the giants, but the more time we spent beneath the canopy, the more we began to notice everything else! From tiny Catalina gobies and hidden invertebrates to the seasonal rituals of the animals that call these forests home.

The more we look, the more we find. There is always another layer. And right now, these forests need people paying attention.

Southern California’s kelp forests are under immense pressure. If this photograph accomplishes anything beyond tonight, I hope it makes someone stop, look a little closer and wonder what we stand to lose if we stop paying attention.

A huge thank you to Oceanographic Magazine and Ocean Photographer of the Year for giving these stories a platform, and congratulations to all the finalists. We can’t wait to meet you tonight!

See you in the kelp,

Steven

We’re very excited about our short film “Voices of the Forest: Beneath Catalina’s Emerald Canopy” being an official sele...
09/01/2026

We’re very excited about our short film “Voices of the Forest: Beneath Catalina’s Emerald Canopy” being an official selection for the SDUFEX San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition screening this year! We can’t wait to go back and be a part of this film festival and see all the amazing films on the big screen!

This film opened the Boston Sea Rovers Film Festival earlier this year and was also awarded at ADEX Voice of the Ocean. It advocates for the preservation of our local kelp forests and highlights the vital characters that depend on it for survival, showing kelp as the lifeline of one of Southern California’s most dynamic ecosystems.

If you’re around in San Diego on Saturday Oct 10th (6-8pm), come watch our film amongst a plethora of incredible natural history films. Huge thanks to SDUFEX and the judges!

See you in the kelp… or in San Diego in October! 🌿🌊

~ Steven & Carmen

Have you been daydreaming about what it’s like to Scuba Dive? Did you know you can try it out before you decide to enrol...
08/26/2026

Have you been daydreaming about what it’s like to Scuba Dive?

Did you know you can try it out before you decide to enroll in a course? In a PADI Discover Scuba, we’ll teach you the basics to keep you safe in the water and then take you on a dive through the kelp forest!

Pictured here is our PADI Course Director Suzy Degazon teaching the basic safety procedures to a curious soul. She is just about to experience life at depth in the kelp forest with Suzy by her side.
📷 Explorers Photography
Meet the team:
Rane Colvin Mark Guccione Jacob Garcia Kylie Phillips Suzy Degazon Christy Coyes Harp Tim Harp Christian Silva Chelsea Karosas Michael Francisco Yafet Mengesha Joel Wilson Explorers Photography

So stoked to be a finalist in Ocean Photographer of the Year this year with my shot of the eye of a Giant Sea Bass! Very...
08/13/2026

So stoked to be a finalist in Ocean Photographer of the Year this year with my shot of the eye of a Giant Sea Bass! Very excited to share a closer look into the marine life of our local waters and the importance of protecting our kelp forests. Shoutout to my lifelong dive buddy Carmen Obied for brainstorming this idea with me and another huge shoutout to the team at Catalina Divers Supply for all of their support. ✌🏽🙏🏽 🤿

~ Steven Lopez
📷: ExplorersPhotography | UW macro shot of the eye of the Giant Sea Bass taken in Catalina Island, California

Finalist in “The Ocean Unseen: Hidden Worlds” category for the 2026

08/06/2026

Sometimes the moments just come together perfectly. Carmen was filming this batray that happened to swim right by me while I was shooting stills and it turned out to be a moment we each captured of one another.
⚙️
📸 1
🔦 | hybrid flash
🖥️
catalinaisland

Our recent trip to Monterey was an incredible display of ocean advocacy, polar science, immersive art, music, and commun...
08/04/2026

Our recent trip to Monterey was an incredible display of ocean advocacy, polar science, immersive art, music, and community.

A huge shoutout to Faith Ortins, Cristian Dimitrius, George Peterson and Blue Green Expeditions for organizing another beautiful evening of Water Odyssey, and to Berkley White, Becca Boring, and the Backscatter crew for hosting another incredible Monterey Shootout.

These are people who have inspired us and spent years building their lives around ocean exploration, science, storytelling, and advocacy.

We were grateful to support Water Odyssey at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and honored to contribute footage to The Invisible Empire, Andrea Stockert’s documentary exploring the importance of the polar regions and what science, exploration, passion, and art look like on an expedition with Blue Green Expeditions, alongside polar scientists, explorers, and artists. Cristian’s live performance of Water Odyssey continues to flow and evolve in incredible ways. If you missed this one, there will be more.

For those interested in experiencing the polar regions firsthand with Blue Green Expeditions and contributing to polar advocacy, let’s talk. We will be going back to Antarctica with Faith in March 2028 and April 2029 and we can help you get there.

Until then, see you in the kelp! 🌿🧊🌊

~ Steven & Carmen

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Los Angeles, CA

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