After diving with sharks off the coast of South Australia, seascape photographer Warren Keelan found a new appreciation for the “majestic” creatures of the deep and says the way they are portrayed is not true.
Two weeks ago the Wollongong artist had the opportunity to take his camera to the Neptune Islands and document sharks in their natural habitat.
“When you’re in the water with them and you come out and you’re lost for words and you’re all emotional from this spiritual thing you realise these creatures are just doing their thing in the ocean,” he said.
“Technology has changed as well ... 30 years ago we didn’t have mobile phones and didn’t have the internet so the sharks were in [the ocean] they just couldn’t be documented.
“It’s all hype. People don’t realise sharks are always out there and always feeding, it’s just now you can hear about it instantly.”
Meantime, one of Keelan’s iconic images titled ‘Silver Helix’ has been shorlisted for the 2016 Australian Geographic ANZANG Nature Photographer of the Year.
The competition received a record 2171 photographs entered by 452 photographers from 9 countries.
Keelan said he’d been lucky enough to have won a few awards which really helped grow his business and get international coverage for the images he’s so passionate about.
Last week his image ‘Congeal’ received 2nd place in the Le Grande International Photo Awards in the Landscape/Nature category.
