New Website

TimCalver.com is brand new, and much improved.  Many thanks to Nadine Stellavato and APhotoFolio for help with design and realization.

Check it out here.

Oceana - Whale Sharks

The new Oceana / January Jones Whale Shark PSAs are running this month in Harper's Bazaar and Oprah Magazine.  Here is the Harper's version and some outtakes from the project. The single whale shark that we envountered was lucky for many different reasons.  But it was freediving with the immense schools of snapper and jacks that made me feel like I was a part of something special in the water.

Calm Days Spent Freediving

Summer seems to have arrived all at once here in Nassau.  The end of May and early June was windy and rough and a sweatshirt was needed between dives.  This past week has been almost perfect.  The ocean is edging over 82 degrees, and each day seems to hold at least a few hours of calm water.  To me, there is no clearer sign of summer than a flat ocean.  It speaks of potential and creativity.  It brings to mind past dives with good friends and all of the experience that came of those days.  I like this image for the basic thought of freediving and time that it contains - inhale one last breath, kick slowly towards the bottom, and for a few minutes the world above spins without me.

Calm Days - Images

Elkhorn Coral

Ever since I shot "The Coral Nursery" for Nature Conservancy Magazine, I take special note of the health of the staghorn and elkhorn coral that I come across.  Finding these few, seemingly healthy pieces, meant swimming over fields of long dead coral.  Is it naive to feel hopeful at such a find?  It's hard to think that there is anything put a forecast in the surrounding cemetery.  But yet, there it grows, seemingly oblivious.

Calm Days, Calm Mother

Shark Week - Andy Samberg

Shark Week is just around the corner, and a few images from one of the Discovery projects I shot this spring have started to appear.  These were shot alonside the Gurney Productions shoot with 2011's Chief Shark Officer, Andy Samberg.  We shot in Nassau and at the very top of the Exumas.  I love the desk in the shallow water and the suit jacket with the surf shorts.  The Gurney guys are easy to work with, but with these kinds of locations and sets, I was definitely wishing I had the eye lines to myself!

Rain North of Bay Street

Before and During

The top photo is Lara in June of 2008.  The bottom photo is Lara in June of 2011.  There is something different between the two ...

While the above photo is the best match for the top photo, I keep coming back to the following image.  There is something about the rolling shapes of Lara's fins, legs, stomach and arms.  They are a nice match for the waves above.  And I like the under-arm-peek to see if I was done shooting.  It reminds me that Lara is an athlete with many competitions behind her.

UPDATE:  I just changed the title of this post and I think changes the link.  Appologies to those who had trouble finding it.  However the title has bothered me ever since I created it.  If I have learned nothing during this 7 month and counting experience, it's that the changes going on inside and outside of Lara are wonderous and contstant.  And if I have heard nothing nothing, it's that the Lara can't wait to get on the treadmill.  So I believe that "Before and During" is a much better title.

Close Call

This image documents a major leak in progress while I was on assignment for the Discovery Channel.  I'm sure there are a few reasons why it happened, but I will sum it up as slipping in the water without doing a final gear check. It could have been much worse.  As I submerged, I distinctly remember looking through the finder and seeing a very unique water line.  It caught my attention because I am a guy who has a developed appreciation for water lines.  A split second later this blissful creative thought matured into the realization that I was about to flood my 1DsMK3 and lens. In the end, I credit luck and the deck crew in equal parts for the fact that I am still shooting with this system.  And the huge surprise in all of this is that I came away with an image ... and an idea.