Stuart Westmorland: In Focus

I’ve been a fan of Stuart Westmorland‘s work since we met more than 10 years ago. While noted for his breathtaking underwater images, Stuart’s portfolio offers great depth (pun intended) and we are delighted to make those images available on Evolve. We asked Stuart to share more about the work he is doing today and he was gracious enough to give us the back story on some of his most recent work.

Women practicing Yoga reflected in wet sand on Pacific Beach at sunset, San Diego, California, USA
© Stuart Westmorland/evolveimages.com

“My wife and I have been spending time in San Diego during the winter season to be near my “daughter in law”.  Here she is in the cold California surf at sunset with her yoga instructor.  I had to lay down in the cold sand to get this low angle and reflections in the sunset.  In spite of all of us shivering it was nothing but smiles as we finished the very productive photo session.  The photo shoot was especially enjoyable for me as Andrea and Christina kept an amazing choreography of fluid yoga exercised going.  I only changed the location and background.  When artists love what they do, it really shows in the photos.”

© Stuart Westmorland

“Two sisters here are getting ready for their mother’s wedding.  I was crammed in a small bathroom trying to find unusual angles to photograph the bride preparing for her big day when I caught this quick and meaningful image of her daughters.  I love the family interaction at weddings.  It is fun to just let the action happen and be aware of the wonderful candid moments that present themselves.”

Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), breaching out of water near Kona, Big Island, Hawaii
© Stuart Westmorland/evolveimages.com

“I have spent a good part of my adult life observing whales in the wild.  Moments like this represent a split second literally and figuratively.  Spending weeks on a small boat in the rough winter months off the Big Island of Hawaii is nothing to complain about but can be arduous all the same.  One of my favorite islands in the world,  The Big Island has a diverse range of mountains, forests, deserts and more microclimates than just about any place on the planet.  Everything came together on this unusual adult whale breach off the Koala Coast.  The palm trees in the background and shoreline wave break spray create a wonderful and moody negative space.”

A school of purple anthias fish, Moore Island, French Polynesia, South Pacific
© Stuart Westmorland/evolveimages.com

“For ten years I have been experimenting with taking motion pan blur images underwater.  Because it is a very fluid world I was tired of seeing it frozen with flash and high shutter speeds.  The purple anthias fish in this image were taken on Moore Island in French Polynesia.  I used a very slow shutter speed and panned my camera with the fish.  The background takes on the look of a painting and you get a better feeling of the fish swimming.  These schooling anthias fish range in colors from brilliant orange to this vibrant purple.”

See more of Stuart’s work here and on his website.