Underwater photographer and writer Walt Stearns has been a staple on the diving scene for decades. We chat to him about the challenges of blackwater diving, his affinity for Goliath grouper, and why he loves his CCR so much. Photographs courtesy of Walt Stearns
Goliath grouper aggregation
Q: As we normally do with these Q&As, how did you first get into diving? A: While I come from that generation where The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau was the big documentary series on TV, growing up in South Florida, I plenty of other influences that drove me into diving. In addition to having the Florida Keys literally in my back yard, my father was one of my first mentors in that he had been very active in scuba diving since the late-1950s till the early 1970s, so it was pretty natural for me to fall into it. Q: What came first – diving, or photography? Were you a land photographer before heading beneath the surface? A: Oh, definitely diving, starting first with collecting tropical fish for my saltwater aquarium at the age of ten, and then getting my first scuba certification by age 16 in 1976. I didn’t pick up a camera till my senior year in high school. At that point I started borrowing my dad’s Nikonos I underwater camera, since he was no longer using it. Q: You have been in the diving industry for a very long time, and over that period you have been involved with several different magazines around the globe. What do you look for in images when shooting for magazines? A: To me, having an image that can tell a story. I found this to particularly true when penning a feature for a magazine, the images that would accompany it needed to not only support what I was describing, but also convoy the excitement, beauty and hopefully the intrigue of it.
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Blackwater diving
