Interview with Tim Calver

To train himself as an underwater photographer, Tim Calver moved to the island of Bimini in the Bahamas with the intent of visiting for six months. He ended up staying eight years. In his shots of Grenada it's easy to see why. Crystal-clear water and friendly faces fill the frame along with colourful wildlife nestled in the crannies of coral reefs. For Calver, underwater photography has opened a world of swimming with humpback whales, sea turtles and celebrities on shoots for the Discovery Channel, Oceana, Audubon and Time.

		PHOTOGRAPHER Tim Calver Despite growing up in London, Ont., Calver fed his passion for the water and underwater photography at the London Aquatic Club, his first scuba course at Ryerson University and numerous projects he shot in pools throughout Toronto. To see more photos from Calver's shoot in Grenada, check out the winter 2010 issue of Canadian Geographic or visit his website.
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Q What was the best part of your shoot in Grenada?

AI've done a lot of work around the Caribbean, but it's always nice to see a new island. Grenada has a great reputation. I've heard a lot about the diving there. Coming away I had a different perspective about what's great about the place: it's the people. I know it's a cliche, but I was really impressed with how friendly they were.

Q Were they friendlier than on other islands you've visited around there?

AI don't want to make comparisons, but if you check out some of my shots you'll find photos of this group that I just came across one morning on the beach. They said they meet there every day and they let me join them and take their portraits.

Let's just say that if you tried the same thing in Miami Beach people wouldn't find it all that cool. In Grenada they just had a friendly, welcoming spirit.

QWhat was the most exciting thing you did while you were there?

A I was really looking forward to seeing the leatherback turtles. I've done a lot of work for Oceana, an environmental group out of Washington, D.C., and the leatherback is a developing recovery story. There is a whole raft of reasons why turtles are in such trouble these days, losing their beaches, light pollution, the list goes on, but the progress made with leatherbacks is encouraging.

QCould you explain your work with Oceana?

A They do a lot of publicity campaigns and match up celebrities with endangered species. I've worked with them before, but back in May I did some pieces for them about whale sharks in Belize with January Jones from Mad Men. We also did some work with her and sharks in the Bahamas at the beginning of last year. During these shoots we usually spend a couple days on location trying to get some interaction with the animals and film the celebrity telling the story of the challenges the animal faces.

QYou have a photo of January Jones holding a shark. Is that dangerous?

AIt's interesting you ask. This was shot at the Bimini biological field station where I got my start in underwater photography years ago. At the field station they research lemon shark behaviour, movement patterns and reproduction. The shark in this shot is a juvenile and outside the frame there are researchers who've been helping January learn how to hold one. She is one of the most passionate people I've met when it comes to sharks. When we went out to find whale sharks in Belize she was actually correcting the writer who had written the 30-second commercial spot.

QHave you ever been intimidated by an animal you were photographing?

AI do a lot of work with sharks and I usually work for Discovery channel once a year on a shark week show. I really credit the experience that I had at the Bimini biological field station for the hands-on training it gave me. While I may feel nervous in the moment, I know when to get out of the water and how to behave around sharks.

QHas there been a time when you became worried about the situation in the water?

AOnce I was working on a documentary film off the coast of Mexico. We were photographing Galapagos and silky sharks. It was one of the first times I had seen those species. For the show, they had bait that they put in the water to attract the animals and when it was gone the sharks started looking at us divers in the water. At the time, it seemed like the question wasn't whether I would get bitten, but what I would do when I got bitten. I don't know how, but we managed to get out of the water.

It's funny; I just did a job in Guadalupe, Mexico, photographing the animal that every underwater photographer wants to shoot the great white shark. To photograph them, you have to work from inside a cage. At times, you begin to think that you could just leave the cage and free-swim with one of these 15-foot-long, 2,000-pound carnivores. It would be the ultimate experience. Although you're quickly brought back to reality when you see them come out of nowhere and tag the bait. You think: 'that could have been my leg right there!'

Q I hear that you've been working on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean 4. What's that like?

A Some of the guys I met in the Bahamas have gone on to have bigger roles in the Hollywood scene. One of my friends coordinates all the boats and marine department guys. I don't work as a photographer but help shackle anchors and reset barges.

We were working on the Black Pearl, a giant floating 60-metre-long set built on top of a fishing boat, and the other ships in the film. For the shots these ships need to be placed in very specific places. They're controlled by lines and big anchors on the bottom of the ocean. So we're always shifting lines and moving anchors.

Q Have you become fond of a particular marine animal after working underwater for so many years?

A A few years ago I did a job where I was shooting humpback whales off of the island of Moorea in Tahiti. For two or three weeks after coming back from that job I woke up every single morning wondering why I wasn't back in Moorea shooting humpbacks. It was such an amazing experience.

Q What was most amazing about it?

A You've got these mother humpbacks who give birth in Antarctica and they've got their new babies with them and you can see that they're so tired, they're sleeping 18 metres below water almost all day long and the babies are up on the surface playing around. It's an amazing little nursery area for these baby humpbacks and mothers.

The 30 days we spent in Moorea was such a unique experience. That's one of the great things about photography: it's opened up all sorts of things that most people would never get to see.

Interview by Graham Lanktree