Wildlife: Honorable Mention 2025 (professional)
ENTRY DESCRIPTION
Dec 2023
Baja California
California Sea Lions
Play is the first lesson of the wild. Among sunlit shallows, three California sea lion pups dart and spiral through the water, their movements spontaneous and joyful. For them, every bubble and ripple is a game, every shaft of light an invitation to tumble and chase. Watching them, I am reminded of the vitality that animates the ocean—the boundless curiosity, trust, and exuberance that connect all life. Through this image, I hope to share a glimpse of that wild exuberance, and to celebrate the freedom and vulnerability of our ocean’s youngest ambassadors.
AUTHOR
In my photography journey, I worked as a journalist and photographer at VICE Media for 1.5 years before partaking in another passion of mine, winemaking, as a career. In 2018, as I got into scuba diving, I took my camera into the ocean and started underwater photography. Subsequently, that led to a new focus of my photography, making underwater photography as a side occupation since then.
Through my lens, I seek to unravel the profound beauty concealed in 71% of our mother planet. I firmly believe that the breathtaking charm of the ocean possesses this unique energy to inspire and prompt conservation awareness & actions. My motivation is quite simple: our ocean and underwater systems are beyond magnificent and I thus cannot help sharing with others how great it is and have been doing it via photography.
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