PHOTOS BY W.L. MCKINNON, WORDS BY SEAN PERCY
Diving in the cold green waters of the Salish Sea is difficult enough. Making art down there is a whole other challenge. Watching W.L. “Bill” McKinnon create photographs is like watching a sculptor or painter - if that artist were 20 metres underwater, covered in rubber, wearing a 30-pound lead belt, a hood and a mask. While the level of technical detail required to take photos underwater is substantial, there’s a marked difference between “taking a picture” and creating art. I take underwater photos. Bill makes art - his subjects just happen to be underwater creatures. Because natural light is low to non-existent at depth, Bill carries two or three specialized strobes attached to his underwater camera. And it’s the use of those strobes that sets Bill’s work apart. He will sometimes spend the better part of an hour – no small feat underwater, when time and air are limited – setting the lights just right to get dramatic black backgrounds and fierce shadows, or to balance the background light with the strobe light as in the photos below. He has taken to using a rebreather in order to spend more time underwater. It adds to the complexity of the equipment, but adds precious minutes to his time underwater on each dive. He loves playing with the lights, attaching snoots to focus the light, and adding arms to his cameras to put the light just where he wants it. “It’s all about the lighting,” he says. He jokes that he could have just as much fun lighting and photographing a rock. But here is where the line between artist and conservationist blurs. He doesn’t shoot rocks. He shoots creatures that most people never see, and even if they did, they might ignore. But by creating beautiful art from them, he makes viewers of his art realize that there’s a lot more to think about on Earth Day than what’s on land. See more of Bill’s art on Facebook or at WLMcKinnon.ca
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• april 2019 • prliving.ca
CRITTER CAPTURES: A Giant Pacific Octopus, right, is creatively lit in the depths off Texada Island. Top left, Grant Wood explores the YOGN 82. Top right, a shy Cabezon peeks out at Bill from behind a Purple Urchin. Close ups are a specialty. Above, Bill’s lens gets close to a Green Shore Crab, a Scalyhead Sculpin and a Spot Prawn, all near Saltery Bay. Clockwise below, a Red-Gilled Nudibranch off Cyril Rock, Striped Perch near Foley Head, the sun shining into the shallows, and a Dirona Nudibranch. photos by W.L. McKinnon
