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Anatomy of the OceanicDreams Logo

In 2003 we commissioned a friend and colleague at the time, Guto Nicolucci, to develop the OceanicDreams brand and website. The logo went through many variations, none of which really captured the essence of what we wanted it to communicate. I challenged Guto that the logo needed to represent freediving with a focus on sharks. We supplied him with a lot of photographs and hoped that the next round of creative would be on target…it was.

Guto combined elements of two images (see below) - the first is that of my father freediving in The Bahamas during the 70s approaching a large Great Hammerhead shark. The original photo was taken by a friend of the family - Lyn Nelson somewhere close to Nassau. The second element was taken from a photography my dad took in the Galapagos during one of his trips of a Galapagos Shark.

Wolfgang Leander freediving and approaching hammerhead (not to spear) in The Bahamas during the 70s.  Image by: Lyn Nelson — Wolfgang Leander freediving and approaching hammerhead (not to spear) in The Bahamas during the 70s. Image by: Lyn Nelson

Galapagos Shark - Galapagos Islands.  Image by: Wolfgang Leander — Galapagos Shark - Galapagos Islands. Image by: Wolfgang Leander

Both elements were traced and are the silhouette of actual subjects - in this case Wolfgang Leander in the 70s and a Galapagos Shark. The circle around both represents the connection between Wolf, the ocean, and sharks… and that is how the logo came to be.

OceanicDreams logo by: Guto Nicolucci

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Logan Mock-Bunting Captures Freediving Competition

Came across a Wired article about freediving yesterday that features the photography of Logan Mock-Bunting. Logan was in the Bahamas late last year to document the 2014 Vertical Blue freediving competition. He captured the ups and downs (literally and figuratively) of the participants - from the celebrations to the black outs.

Shallow water black-out.  Image by: Logan Mock-Bunting — Shallow water black-out. Image by: Logan Mock-Bunting

Be sure to check out his work at www.loganmb.com.

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William Winram The Watermen Project

William Winram freediving with South African Tiger Shark.  Image by: Felix Leander — William Winram freediving with South African Tiger Shark. Image by: Felix Leander

William Winram has been around for a while in the freediving world and over time (last six years) he has been reinventing himself and using his skill set to positively impact the ocean through education, setting up a foundation, speaking engagements, photography among others - oh and by the way he is still setting freediving world records.

Good for him - I met Will in South Africa in 2008 while freediving Aliwal Shoal - at the very start of his transformation. I have been following his adventures ever since - his projects have lead him from Mexico (tagging white sharks) to the Bahamas (tagging great hammerhead sharks). William is genuinely a nice guy and great to be around - his heart, mind, and soul are in the right place.

The Watermen Project is a NGO founded by William that is centered around "to be involved with any activity aiming at marine conservation. Our NPO therefore actively contributes to scientific and empiric research whereby the goal is to study the marine environment in order to protect and conserve it. More specifically, any activity aiming at protecting large marine species such as sharks, whales, etc. " - complete mission statement and goal. Most of the work at the moment seems to be centered around scientific expeditions / helping the scientific community tagging sharks.

Will is currently in Bimini tagging hammerheads, hanging out with Richard Branson, and he finally had the opportunity to meet Doc. Keep up with Will on Twitter or Instagram

William Winram  Image by: Laurent Egli — William Winram Image by: Laurent Egli

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Crystal River

Three Sisters - Manatees and Noodlers. Image by Manuel Menendez

Just 4.5 hours north of Miami, Crystal River becomes the home to hundreds of manatees during the Florida winters. Last weekend a group of us ventured up for a quick getaway and interactions with the sea cows. Raul Boesel Jr., Manuel Menendez and I packed our better halves, children, dogs, and of course equipment to capture what we thought would only be manatees.

There are two ways to dive in Crystal River - guided tours (with a bunch of "noodlers" - people that have never been in the water that use pool noodles to float) or renting your own boat / pontoon, of course we went with the latter. There are several locations worth visiting - the most popular being Three Sisters. The Florida Fish and Wildlife has a strong presence there to ensure the manatees are not molested by the noodlers + control the access to the spring. We were lucky enough that access to the springs was granted as it has been closed for most of the season since there has been such a large gathering of manatees.

Each of us had an idea of what we wanted to capture:

Raul testing rear sync flash set-up motion blur (more on that soon)
Manuel to get aerial pics with his drone
Me - video of manatees / other

And while we did capture what we wanted to - we also found subject matters what we never expected to see such as a school of hundreds of Snook, mangrove snappers, and morning fog. The results of the trip are below...

Mangrove snappers.  Image by Raul Boesel Jr — Mangrove snappers. Image by Raul Boesel Jr

Video of Manatees, Snapper, and Snook while freediving in Crystal River, FL using a GoPro. Video by Felix Leander

Manatee and Lala.  Image by Manuel Menendez — Manatee and Lala. Image by Manuel Menendez

It is definitely worth a trip up and expect great southern hospitality when you go out to eat.

Please be aware of the fact that diving with sharks can be potentially dangerous. Do NOT closely interact with sharks, touch them, feed them unless you are very experienced and know exactly how to interpret their body language. While it might look easy and harmless to interact with sharks the way we do, we do NOT encourage this type of underwater activity.