Based in Cape Town, South Africa, I am an ocean scientist and itinerant photographer who has been involved in marine sciences for 30 odd years, mainly in the Southern African region and within the Southern Ocean.

 

I have been incredibly privileged during this time to travel with a camera through many of the world's ocean and wild spaces, both topside and underwater, from the storms and ice of the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic, to the coral reefs of the Indian Ocean, Bali, the Similans and Surins of Thailand and the Red Sea, and from the deserts of the Kgalagadi, Namib and Atacama to the mountains of the Himalaya and Andes. Many of the underwater images come from freediving my back-garden brightly-coloured local reefs and extensive kelp forests in the southern Benguela System off Cape Town. Wildlife and wilderness images are from the Kgalagadi, Okavango Delta, Kruger, Mana and other African wild spaces. Surf and wave images are largely from the Dungeons, and Sunset reefs off the western Cape Peninsula.

 

Many images were taken in areas that are no longer true wilderness or in areas that are now only "wild" through their protected area status so that KenFinPhoto supports initiatives for increased ocean and terrestrial wilderness area protection. Oceans and wild spaces are changing - rapidly and KenFinPhoto therefore strongly supports the global goal of 30x30  - thirty percent of global areas protected by 2030.

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"I kinda like to think photos are crafted rather than taken - to take a photo seems to me a little like daylight robbery - any light robbery actually! I try to have ideas of images in my head (sort of "neurochromes") before a trip, a dive or an event. Translating my imagined and experienced into imagery - to allow others to see oceans and wilderness areas as I see them - requires a focused and creative mindfulness that I love about the challenges of wild photography". 

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"I am also a little alarmed at the artificial generation of obviously fake imagery, creating fake or false expectations of wilderness and wilderness experiences, in turn driving 'get that shot' behaviours that pressure wild species, spaces, and experiences. KenFinPhoto strives to portray the real."  

 

Please enjoy looking through these images and if you wish to use any or even just chat about where and how they were crafted then please kindly make contact via the contact details below. Imagery is provided pro bono to ocean and wilderness conservation and protection initiatives.

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Thanks, Ken

 

CONTACT

Phone: +27 (0)82 5708212

Email: ken0findlay@gmail.com