What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up? Careers in the Marine and Maritime Field
Marine Photographer I
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r's midnight, and it's David Thoreso n's rime for watch aboard the 64-fr. steel sailboat Ocean Watch. Even though it's the middle of August, he needs a few minutes to layer on long johns, turtleneck, Reece top and pants, a swearer, and waterproof rain gea r. D avid and his shipmates are navigating between ice floes in the famous Northwest Passage, north of the Arctic Circle. On deck, he relieves his shipmate, who shows him where they are on the chart and tells him what the weather and wind have been like for th e last three hours. David is an experienced sa ilor, bur it is just one of his many rides. Aboard Ocean Watch, he is also rhe expedition's photographer, a career in which he excels in any environment, and his primary work when he's nor at sea. We mer David aboard Ocean Watch last month in Newport, Rhode Island, afte r he and his shipmates had made it successfully through the Northwest Passage; he told us about how he became a marin e photographer and what his job is like: { {A marine photographer is really an outdoor, landscape, or wildlife photographer who specializes in water-related imagery. This can be anything from ' beauty of the seascape' to issue-oriented photographs documenting long ocean passages, sailing races, or aquatic life.
I go to sea for long periods of two months to more than a year once every 2-3 years. In between voyages, I work on selling my images in print form and making documentary films - I own a photography gallery located on a lake in northern Iowa. Right now, I am working at sea on the sailboat Ocean Watch, which is in the middle of a 400-day voyage circumnavigating both North and South America . A typical day on Ocean Watch involves serving as a sailor (watch captain), cooking, cleaning anything really-and all the while I document life on board the boat and off with my camera. When I was a kid, I d idn't know that I would want to be a photographer. What I really liked was to be Dolphins greeted the crew of Ocean Watch at daybreak on 17 September outside exploring my surroundings. I grew up around on their way towards Halifax, Nova Scotia. One thing about photographing Lake Okoboji , Iowa, far from the sea. I took out little wild animals is that y ou just never /mow when they might show up. D avid boats on the lake and developed a knowledge of boat keeps his camera handy to make sure he doesn't miss a good photo opportunity. handling at an early age. The space program and the astronauts walking on the moon taking the pictures of the earth as a little planet in space had a huge influence on my life. Later I learned that I was a very visual person and the earths environment had become of urgent importance to me. I had some training in college, but photography is all about trial and error; picking up a camera, looking at the world and experimenting. After college, I took a long bicycle trip through New Zealand, and thats when I decided to make photography my career. To develop my skills as a professional, I did the apprenticeship route and worked with three different older accomplished photographers, learning different things from each. JJ
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Trying to keep a video camera steady on a moving boat can be a bit ofa challenge. H ere, David shoots video of Ocean Watch passing between ice floes in the Northwest Passage.
SEA HISTORY 129, WINTER 2009-10
While David is our at sea, yo u can follow his journey aboard Ocean Watch at www.aro und rhean1ericas.org, where yo u ca n see his spectacular photos of the expedition and learn abo ut how we can all help w improve th e health of our oceans, an issue David feels passionate abo ut. H e also maintains his own web sire at www.bl uewarersrudios.com. There, yo u can find his biogs, twitter, thoughts abo ut climate change, and news of his traveling ~ exhibit, "20 Years, 20 Stories." 1,
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