Introducing Michelle Manson! Michelle is an underwater photographer in Northern California whose images depict the unique marine environment of the temperate pacific waters along the California coast. Originally from Arizona, she was certified to dive in 1992 and has been shooting underwater for more than 20 years.
Like many photographers, Michelle became really interested in what she saw and loved underwater and wanted to share it with everyone around her. Her interest may have bloomed because of the example set by her father and grand father who also loved to take pictures. She enjoyed teaching scuba on Catalina Island for a time and found it to be an amazing experience. Someday, she would like to travel outside the United States for an extended time to experience other fun places to dive.
Michelle enjoys wide angle photography and especially enjoys close focus wide angle as she loves to have something detailed in the front of her images with an awesome background. Her camera kit includes a Nikon D850 in Nauticam housing and Sea&Sea YS-D1 strobes. The piece of equipment that is most valuable to her is her mini dome port, because it gives her the opportunity to get into a tight space even with her strobes and accentuate smaller subjects in CFWA shots.
Many California divers have an abiding love for sea lions and Michelle is no exception. She loves the challenge of shooting sea lions and their crazy, zippy antics especially when it is a dark day. You will notice that many of her shots are in a vertical format, as this is her favorite technique for underwater photos.
Michelle is a self-taught photographer who surrounded herself with like-minded scuba divers and underwater photographers. In this way, she was able to learn from others and perfect her craft. Her advice to new photographers is to “work on learning to get your shot 95% right while shooting and rely only on the last 5% to be adjusted and “prepped” in post. Learn how to use your camera.”
Michelle’s work can be found on her website at https://mansonfotos.smugmug.com/. You can follow her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mansonfotos/?hl=en and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MansonFotos-700325566735574/ .
If you would like to be featured as an under water photographer, please email waterdogphotography@gmail.com and request more info. We are looking forward to seeing some great work on this page!
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The images on this page are copyright protected by the featured photographer and may not be copied or used without written permission. All other images and content are copyright protected by Brook Peterson and may only be used with written permission. Please do not copy or print them. To discuss terms for using these images, please contact Brook Peterson at waterdogphotography@gmail.com
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