Wayne Levin is 64, at least until October.MOSSLESS: How much time do you think you’ve spent underwater?WAYNE LEVIN: That’s a hard question to answer. My average scuba dive is about an hour, and I’ve done about 1500 dives. So that’s about 1500 hours scuba diving. However about 2/3 of my underwater photographs were taken snorkeling or freediving. During my 20 years living in Kona, I would often (about four times a week) go on swims, and hook a camera to my swimsuit. When I saw something to photograph I would take a few deep breaths, and dive down. Usually those freedives wouldn’t last more than a minute, but I must have done tens of thousands of them. So I’ll let you do the math.ML: Have you gotten used to photographing underwater creatures? Is there a way to predict their movements?WL: It’s hard to predict an animal’s movement, but I try. I will never try to swim to where they are, but I will guess on where they will be in a minute or two and try to meet them at that location. As soon as I’m in a situation where I’m following or chasing an animal, I stop. It doesn’t work. Usually, the animal is the one in charge of whether or not you will get close to them. So the best tactic is to be calm, and not aggressive, and hope that they will be interested in checking you out.ML: What is the best kind of day to shoot the kinds of photos you shoot?WL: Since I shoot black and white film without flash, I usually like strong sunlight. I usually prefer to shoot on sunny days between 10AM and 2PM. There are exceptions. On an overcast day, the underside of the surface becomes much more reflective. This can create beautiful images. Also, I recently did a project photographing Manta Rays at night using available light. In Kona they have these night Manta dives, where there may be as many as 7 or 8 dive boats, with up to 50 divers in the water. The divers will sit in a circle and shine their lights up creating a column of light. This light attracts plankton, which attracts Mantas with 5-12 ft. wingspans. The Mantas will literally swim summersaults in the column of light, with their mouths open scooping up plankton. I decided to shoot this without flash using high-speed film. I would have exposures between ¼ and a couple seconds, so the subjects (Mantas, Humans, other fish, bubbles) would usually be blurred. Sometimes another divers flash would go off in the middle of my exposure causing the image to be both sharp and blurry.ML: Which photograph that you have taken is most meaningful to you?WL: Another difficult question, the answer is always changing day to day. But today I would say Galapagos Sharks in Sand Channel, Kure. Last summer I was invited by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to accompany one of their research cruises to the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. This picture was taken at Kure, the last and oldest island in the chain. The underwater topography on the outside of the Kure barrier reef is spectacular, with deep sand channels running perpendicular to the reef. I particularly like this image because to me it is primarily a landscape image of this beautiful underwater terrain, but within this landscape are these sharks that seem to be frozen in time. I think the sharks give it a surreal quality.

Wayne Levin is 64, at least until October.

MOSSLESS: How much time do you think you’ve spent underwater?
WAYNE LEVIN: That’s a hard question to answer. My average scuba dive is about an hour, and I’ve done about 1500 dives. So that’s about 1500 hours scuba diving. However about 2/3 of my underwater photographs were taken snorkeling or freediving. During my 20 years living in Kona, I would often (about four times a week) go on swims, and hook a camera to my swimsuit. When I saw something to photograph I would take a few deep breaths, and dive down. Usually those freedives wouldn’t last more than a minute, but I must have done tens of thousands of them. So I’ll let you do the math.

ML: Have you gotten used to photographing underwater creatures? Is there a way to predict their movements?
WL: It’s hard to predict an animal’s movement, but I try. I will never try to swim to where they are, but I will guess on where they will be in a minute or two and try to meet them at that location. As soon as I’m in a situation where I’m following or chasing an animal, I stop. It doesn’t work. Usually, the animal is the one in charge of whether or not you will get close to them. So the best tactic is to be calm, and not aggressive, and hope that they will be interested in checking you out.

ML: What is the best kind of day to shoot the kinds of photos you shoot?
WL: Since I shoot black and white film without flash, I usually like strong sunlight. I usually prefer to shoot on sunny days between 10AM and 2PM. There are exceptions. On an overcast day, the underside of the surface becomes much more reflective. This can create beautiful images. Also, I recently did a project photographing Manta Rays at night using available light. In Kona they have these night Manta dives, where there may be as many as 7 or 8 dive boats, with up to 50 divers in the water. The divers will sit in a circle and shine their lights up creating a column of light. This light attracts plankton, which attracts Mantas with 5-12 ft. wingspans. The Mantas will literally swim summersaults in the column of light, with their mouths open scooping up plankton. I decided to shoot this without flash using high-speed film. I would have exposures between ¼ and a couple seconds, so the subjects (Mantas, Humans, other fish, bubbles) would usually be blurred. Sometimes another divers flash would go off in the middle of my exposure causing the image to be both sharp and blurry.

ML: Which photograph that you have taken is most meaningful to you?
WL: Another difficult question, the answer is always changing day to day. But today I would say Galapagos Sharks in Sand Channel, Kure. Last summer I was invited by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to accompany one of their research cruises to the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. This picture was taken at Kure, the last and oldest island in the chain. The underwater topography on the outside of the Kure barrier reef is spectacular, with deep sand channels running perpendicular to the reef. I particularly like this image because to me it is primarily a landscape image of this beautiful underwater terrain, but within this landscape are these sharks that seem to be frozen in time. I think the sharks give it a surreal quality.