From top: Sperm whale, Domenica; Mother and baby sperm whale below in Dominica; Their whales tails
“When the guide spots the whales you are dropped in their path no less than three hundred feet away. They will often swim with in ten feet of you if they do not feel threatened.”
I’ve known Brad Roaman since we were kids in high school, growing up in New York City. He has always been an avid sailor, sharing his love of the water on his boat with his friends, myself included, from above the surface. When he recently showed me these images of whales he had photographed below the surface, I was mesmerized. Brad is a fashion photographer, and I was familiar with that body of work, but for me this was a whole different level in a whole new environment.
Brad began shooting what he calls “Waterscapes” about a year ago. It began with him photographing his son and friends jumping off the boat from the water. He was shooting on his phone, trying to stay afloat with one hand, and taking pictures with the other. His perspective was just below the surface, water filling different parts of the frame from below. “The beauty of the water”, he told me, “is you never know what you’re going to get, how the water is going to frame the foreground and people in the background”.
Top: Brad photographing a sleeping mother sperm whale below in Dominica
“While the baby sperm whales played in the viscinity, this mother took a nap. The sperm whales sleep in this vertical position. It is a rare sight cherished by fans.”
“I had such a strong response to the images, I said let’s do this right.” He knew he wanted to do more underwater photography and ordered an underwater camera housing. Next came the dog series, “Woof”. Taken with the underwater camera, and shooting from the water towards the beach, these images have a completely unique perspective as the dogs frolic and run towards him, half in and out of the surf.
Brad started looking on social media for inspiration on other underwater subjects he could photograph. “I came upon the whales by Paul Nicklen, a National Geographic photographer, and immediately knew I wanted to photograph them. Two weeks later I booked a trip to Polynesia and spent two weeks photographing the humpback whales. That was a year ago.” The journey has continued around the world in “Whales” series…
“These humpback whales above were found in Moorea. In the bottom left, the baby whale and mother head to the surface after hunting for squid on the ocean floor.”
Brad has spent his life on the water. It is his comfortable space. Here he gets to combine his passion for photography and creating images, with that love of the water. “What attracts me to the whales is a combination of the water and my clean black and white fashion vision of energy and movement. Like my fashion photography, the dark water becomes a gray seamless background and the whale a graphic element in the foreground.”
The technical challenges of shooting underwater with little light produce a raw file that can only be fully realized post production. “You have to bring the contrast and color out. I love the process. I love the experience…
In this world that we live in, whether it’s what’s going on internationally or on college campuses or in our government or in our country, when I get in the water with the whales there is no artifice, there is no politics. It is the purest experience in the world.”
Top: Two sperm whales swim away creating an underwater symmetry as only nature can; Below…
“After four hours with no whales in view, off the island of Tupai we came upon this very social adolescent humpback with all white dorsal fins. For 40 minutes the teenager played with us like a golden retriever puppy. Charging at us and then diving to the bottom only to reappear two minutes later. The mother was sleeping 100 feet below us. More often than not we scrambled to get out of its way.
SEE MORE AT BRAD ROAMAN PHOTOGRAPHY
