Photographer Captures the Beautiful Underwater World

By
Miranda B
-

Juan Oliphant is a talented photographer from Hawaii who captures the wonderful world under the ocean’s surface. Oliphant holds a degree in fine art and photography and believes that a photo is worth more than a thousand words.

“I try to capture as much feeling and evoke as much emotion as I try to evoke people to ask questions,” he said to Design You Trust. “I want to capture and share moments that start a conversation about the animals and the connection and relationship we have with them. I use my time, talents, and work around the world to help change people’s fear of sharks into fascination and respect.”

Check out Oliphant’s Instagram page where he’s approaching 500k followers.

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Words by @oceanramsey The ocean is incredible, the marine creatures I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and the things I’ve seen never cease to amaze and astound me. While filming for a documentary we were working on @savingjawsmovie I had the honor of spending a lot of time observing humpback whales. This day the mother would swim her calf to the surface right in front of us. Sometimes she would go sleep below and the calf would play responding and mimicking the movement of my arms. During this quiet time with both the mother and calf floating motionless on the surface, occasionally breathing and occasionally waving their giant pectorals wide and slow. I lifted my arms out wide too and the calf watched curiously 💙 The peaceful presence of these graceful creatures is humbling. Whales were once hunted to the brink of extinction but enough people cared to speak up and protect them and I thank those in the older generations who were a part of that. I hope enough people will be inspired to help sharks get the same protection whales and dolphins have. I know not every country treats them the same but sharks need help now more than ever. #HelpSaveSharks #SaveTheOcean #Whales #Ocean #Humpbackwhales #Amazing #beautiful #instagood #madeofocean #Oneocean #oneoceanglobal #freediving #good #Conservation Photo taken in the #SouthPacific Photo by @juansharks Wetsuit #ladyshark by @xcelwetsuits collab @oneoceandesigns conservation benefit.

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I understand the principle of not touching wild life, keeping nature pure and pristine. But when a 2 ton shark decides to engage you, you may have to engage it back. @oceanramsey is far away from the boat and the crate with food and yet Emma the tiger shark would seek out Ocean multiple times in day. I can’t claim to know why, maybe it is Oceans vertical position standing on the bottom with her fin tips, maybe it is the light reflecting off her whale shark wetsuit, maybe Emma likes the way Ocean gently touched her. And it was not just Emma, as rare as it is, in the last 20 years I have seen other large sharks seek out human touch or engagement in a non aggressive way . My goal in sharing this is not to have people trying to touch sharks because most do not like to be touch, but to get people to see what is possible with years of experience diving with sharks, and to get people to care about sharks. I have found that just documenting sharks by themselves leaves people still thinking that sharks are scary. Images like this gets people engaged and creates a different perception of sharks, one that I hope inspires conservation, to save what we have left. #ApexPredatorNotMonster photo by #juansharks #juanoliphant using @aquatech_imagingsolutions @cressi1946 @xcelwetsuits @guayaki #oneocean @oneoceanconservation

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Beautiful waters of French Polynesia meet my gorgeous wife/mermaid on our wedding day. I fell in love with @oceanramsey for thousands of reasons, but the thing that constantly inspires me is her drive and deep rooted passion for shark conservation. Just getting her to take some time off for our wedding was a mission. Even during our wedding she was so concerned for the shark bill in Hawaii , taking time to talk to local fishermen and spear fishermen on the importance of sharks, stopping constantly everywhere picking up trash even if it was not even close to the ocean, she would say “get it just incase the wind takes it there”. Thank u Ocean for inspiring me to be a better person and ocean conservationist. Even making me bike back to the local market to buy dog/cat food for the local homeless starving strays. Tag someone that inspires u. I shot this on my @aquatech_imagingsolutions housing for my @canonusa 1dxmark2 using a 16 to 35mm lens setting 1/640 f7.1 and ISO 640. #mycanonstory #teamcanon #freediving #underwaterphotography #underwaterlove #weddingdress #mermaid #beautiful #wife #bride #refections #inspiration #positiveinfluence

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Earth Day! I love days dedicated towards raising awareness and conservation. Taking time from the hustle and grind of our daily lives to make this place we all live in better. So many issue that are contributing to the pollution of this planet. 70 percent of the earth is covered by the ocean, so my focus always has been on the ocean. Some studies show that Long line fishing fleets conservatively have up to 40 percent by-catch annual, seafood killed unintentionally, most of which is sharks. Ask where ur seafood comes from and refused to buy it if it is not locally and sustainable sourced. If everybody did just this one thing, the impacts for the health of our planet are huge. My mission is to get people to care about the ocean and sharks, using images Like this one of Me and Niki the tiger shark having a moment, to show people that sharks are not out to get us, that they are worth saving, that we can co exist, and that the ocean and our planet will not be the same with out them. Live as if Earth day every is every day. Photo by @oceanramsey using her iPhone in a @axisgo #shotoniphone #apexpredatornotmonster #coexist #earthday #wecanmakeadifference #helpsavesharks #askwhereyourseafoodcomesfrom

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@oceanramsey and one of the few male tiger sharks we have seen @oneoceandiving in the last 20years. We named this tiger shark Riley after Our New Zealand shark biologist @thelifeofrileynz while he was out here working with us @oneoceanresearch. Riley the tiger came by Friday with a large female tiger shark named Candy Stripe, both behaving oddly, circling each other and swimming in a figure 8 almost. My 1st reaction was territorial behavior but it carried on for while. Last time we encountered Riley was almost a year ago and he was with another large female tiger shark named Tank. Mating? Not sure but it seemed like some kind of courtship. @oceanramsey pictured here getting close with her @axisgo. #ApexPredatorNotMonster #coexist #savingjaws #extinctionisforever #stopsharkfinsoup #stopsharkfinning #cagethefear #starttocare #helpsavesharks

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We are what we eat! Studies are predicting that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. Tag someone u think should know this! I know we can’t stop all plastic but single use plastic like water bottle, plastic utensils, straws, and plastic bags need to stop. If ur feeling inspired to do something Come help clean up the beach at Kahala Beach tomorrow from 9am to 12pm with @oneoceanconservation @kennaaloha @oneoceandiving and if u can’t make it do ur best to stop the use of single use plastic in ur community. #stopsingleuseplastic #beachcleanup #stopsucking #noplasticstraws #noplasticbottles #savetheocean #savethesharks this photo creation by @paolo_pnd found via @zerograss

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This is a Split image of Riley the tiger shark roaming the surface with his dorsal fin out. It so rare for us to see tiger sharks @oneoceandiving. In 20 years of diving the north shore, actively looking for Sharks, I have only seen around 30 deferent individual tiger sharks.. IUCN has tiger sharks listed as a threatened species with less than 30,000 world wide. Tiger sharks have a vital role in our oceans ecosystem, literally the garbage men, taking care of the dead rotten things that no other shark would want to. Also studies show how tiger sharks move different species in and out of areas , like sea turtles so they don’t over graze sea grass. There is so much more yet to be discovered about sharks, but we are running out of time at the rate sharks are being killed. World wide, humans have killed off over 90 percent of shark populations in just the last 50 years and continue to kill over 70 million sharks each year. You can make a huge impact on the survival of sharks by just asking were ur sea food comes from. If it is not sustainably caught from local fishermen DON’T EAT it. The long line fishing fleets are basically destroying our ocean and wasting resources with the amount of by-catch “discarded unwanted fish, most of which is sharks”. Some conservative reports of by-catch average 40 to 50 percent of total catch others report up to 80 percent on long line fisheries. This is not just about the devastation of shark populations, it is about the survival of our ocean. Most of the seafood consumed by humans comes at a cost to the environment that should be unacceptable. There is still a short window of time to reverse the damages but the time to change is now. Support local sustainable fishermen or better yet convert to a plant base diet if u can. #YouCanMakeADifference #Sustainable #seafood #stopsharkfishing #stoplonglinefishing #helpsavesharks #askwhereyourseafoodcomesfrom #supportlocalfishermen or #goplantbased photo by #juansharks using @aquatech_imagingsolutions @cressi1946 @xcelwetsuits @north_sails @guayaki

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