Henley Spiers Photography, Cape Town (2026)

15/06/2026

Good news from the China Wildlife Photo Competition: two of my images were recognised in the Underwater World category.

Fish Faces received second prize, while Shark Patrol earned an honourable mention.

For me, both photographs capture fleeting moments of natural harmony. I could envision the frames I wanted, but bringing them to life required patience, timing and a little luck.

Shark Patrol was photographed in the Galápagos, where oceanic blacktip sharks cruised around a vast school of salemas. I spent 45 minutes hidden within the school before a shark finally came close enough to puncture the swirling mass of fish, giving the image its defining character.

Photographing schooling fish head-on is one of the most difficult perspectives to achieve. I made Fish Faces in French Polynesia while ascending from a dive, when I spotted a school of blackdot snapper sheltering beneath a jetty.

The current surged past me, pushing me quickly beyond the fish, but it also helped keep the school tightly packed and perfectly aligned. I wedged myself into an awkward position, locking my legs around the jetty pilings so I could hold steady and face the fish directly.

Then I waited for the moment they all turned towards me. To add a little more visual complexity, I introduced a subtle touch of camera movement.

Click.

14/05/2026

“You have to believe it’s possible while accepting that it’s unlikely. Focus on building skills you can control — diving, fieldcraft, storytelling, and relationship-building. Create multiple income streams to stay financially viable. Get as close to the industry as you can, even in junior roles. And when opportunities come, be decisive. Preparation is everything.”

An extract from my interview with legendary ocean cinematographer Roger Horrocks. The full piece is now live on my website, offering a privileged insight into what it takes to reach the top of one of the world’s most demanding industries. Even if you don’t know Roger by name, you’ve almost certainly seen his work through productions such as Blue Planet IIand My Octopus Teacher.

For several weeks, I lived and dived alongside Roger in his backyard of Cape Town. Experiencing the African kelp forest and its inhabitants while watching Roger work firsthand offered a rare perspective on both the environment and the craft.

The worlds of stills and moving underwater imagery share many similarities, but operating at the highest level in either demands a specialised skillset and approach. This intersection of photography and film became the backdrop to our creative collaboration.

08/05/2026

The Overview Effect is the profound cognitive shift astronauts describe when they look back at Earth from space — a feeling of awe, connection, and a deeper desire to protect our planet.

It’s extraordinary, but for most of us it will remain out of reach.

Recently, and asked whether a similar shift might happen underwater. They call it the Innerview, and it’s the focus of a special edition of the magazine.

My take? The ocean has given me everything I could ever hope for: exploration, wonder, connection — and, yes, the urge to conserve.

Its pull is powerful. I’ve become addicted to that feeling. Addicted to the ocean. Addicted to our planet.

And while space may remain out of reach for most of us, getting underwater is far more possible. Trust me — what awaits there is spectacular, otherworldly, and every bit as transformative.

01/05/2026

Rainbow Octopus.

Meet Matilda, Day Octopus of the Kanuhura reef.

Never before have I enjoyed such a connection with a single animal in the ocean. When we first met, she was timid and wary, observing me from her den. I gave her time and over several days and hours her curiosity grew. She started reaching out with her arms, touching my hands and camera. The boundary between species started to break.

With even more patience, she decided I posed no threat and felt confident enough to leave the den and go hunting. It was astonishing to be accepted into her inner circle as she conducted these expeditions. She grew entirely comfortable in my presence and I watched as she scoured the reef for prey. I also watched as she quickly retreated in the presence of blacktip reef sharks.

20 hours underwater with a single octopus, all within easy swimming distance of my bedroom.

I know I’m not the first to feel such awe at these animals, but this was my mini version of that classic story, my own octopus teacher.

28/04/2026

Delighted to find out this picture, a personal favourite, is the winner of the Oceans category in this year’s Environmental Photography Award.

I call it ‘Shearwater’s Dilemma’ and it show the moment a wedge-tailed shearwater plunges into a football-pitch-sized school of lanternfish, struggling to single out a target. The fish move as one, their schooling defence working perfectly. The bird surfaces empty-handed, then circles back for another dive.

Shearwaters are exquisitely adapted for life at sea and depend on healthy fish stocks. This encounter captures a rarely witnessed moment of open-ocean abundance—and one of the most extraordinary days of my career as an underwater photographer. Lanternfish are thought to be the most numerous vertebrates on Earth, accounting for up to 65% of deep-sea fish biomass. They form a critical link in the ocean food web, sustaining predators including seabirds, dolphins, tuna, and devil rays.

In 2026, the High Seas Treaty comes into force, marking the first international legal framework to protect scenes like this across the half of our planet that lies beyond national waters.

Thank you to .photoaward and for making this all possible. I am incredibly honoured that a jury of , , , .gilks, .guynup, , and found merit in my work.

24/04/2026

It’s not just the pretty pictures which count.
I came across this turtle drifting lifeless in the open ocean—an encounter as sobering as it was unexpected. The cause was clear: a boat strike. A sudden, avoidable end.

For a juvenile turtle, the odds are already stacked—perhaps one in a thousand will ever reach adulthood. With many sea turtle species still under pressure globally, each loss carries weight far beyond the individual.

If one considers that the chances of a juvenile turtle surviving to adulthood are something like like 1 in a 1000. Combined with the fact that sea turtles are widely endangered. This death is not just significant to the the individial but to the species as a whole.

Despite the obvious heart-wreching power of the picture, it has a haunting beauty and a touch of hope - exemplified by the juvenile fish that have adopted the ghost turtle as a form of inverted life raft. The picture was recognised for its impact in both the Underwater Photographer of the Year and the Ocean Photographer of the Year.

The story took another turn in late 2025, when, after decades of conservation efforts, green turtle population numbers on a global scale show sufficient growth to have the IUCN Red List move the species from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Least Concern’.

21/04/2026

At first glance, it looked like a scrap of plastic drifting on the surface.

But beneath the glare of the sun, this was something far more extraordinary—a blue button, a delicate colony of organisms no more than 3cm across, living its entire life adrift at the ocean’s surface.

Then, a surprise.

Sheltering beneath its perfectly circular float, a juvenile fish—likely a young jack—hovered in place. In the vast openness of the ocean, even the smallest refuge matters. For young fish, anything floating can become a lifeline, offering just enough cover to feel safe.

Studies have shown juvenile trevally forming strong attachments to individual blue buttons, even panicking when separated and returning to the same host.

But encounters like this are rarely seen.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first photograph capturing this relationship in the Eastern Pacific—and with this species.

Sometimes, the ocean’s smallest drifters hold the biggest stories.

17/04/2026

It was my first time in this freshwater cenote. Once a place where locals came to wash their cars, it has since transformed into a popular natural beauty spot. What first drew me in was the garden of lilies—their pale pads hiding a delicate pink underside, visible only by diving below.

As I explored, I was startled to encounter a turtle—an unexpected presence in such a scene. For a brief moment, the red-eared slider hovered perfectly among the forest of stems, and I was grateful for the chance encounter.

Later, a darker reality became apparent.

This turtle is not native to the area and was almost certainly a released pet. Red-eared sliders are the most widely traded turtles in the world, their popularity carrying them far beyond their natural range. When released into the wild, they often thrive—at a cost.

Highly adaptable and resilient, they outcompete native species, becoming one of the world’s most invasive reptiles. Here, their presence threatens local wildlife such as the Meso-American slider, pictured in the final image.

15/04/2026

No, this isn’t a piece of decaying cheese—it’s a small scene from Britain’s temperate seas. I call it The Art of Eating. It shows minute sea snails, just 4mm long, feeding on a kelp frond. Their grazing creates tiny gaps in the kelp, and in this particularly dense patch, those holes became the canvas for this image.

Having spotted the snails and felt that spark of inspiration, I began experimenting with compositions and techniques. With the snails on the underside of the frond, it was impossible to manoeuvre myself into position without disturbing the scene. The solution was to shoot blind with my macro lens—effectively from the hip—capturing the upward composition I had envisioned.

The yellow frond against blue water was pleasing, but I found even greater satisfaction in a white background, achieved by carefully overexposing the water behind.

It’s an easily overlooked moment in the seasonal rise and fall of temperate kelp forests, but one I found particularly beautiful. Fortunately, I wasn’t alone in that sentiment—an image from this encounter went on to be awarded in the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

13/04/2026

Black and white will elevate your craft as a photographer. Even if you are not committed to the medium long-term, the process of shooting in black and white will hone your eye for composition. Nowhere is this more true than underwater, where the incredible colours we encounter often take centre stage in our images. What happens when we are forced to remove that vibrant colour? We are left with a stripped-back frame, one that will either stand or fall based on its pure compositional merit.

As you begin to practice black and white underwater, it can be useful to switch your camera’s display to a black and white creative style and shoot both RAW and JPEG. You can even adjust this creative profile to give a more punchy preview by increasing contrast and clarity in-camera. This will help you learn to see without colour, and the images you pursue may be entirely different from those that would have previously piqued your inspiration.

This is a short extract from my photographic column for .

Henley Spiers Photography

15/06/2026

14/05/2026

08/05/2026

01/05/2026

28/04/2026

24/04/2026

21/04/2026

17/04/2026

15/04/2026

13/04/2026

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