TONY BARROS
Professor of Oceanography
My love affair with
the oceans began when I was about seven years old. My family had a house on the
beautiful beach of Boca Ciega, about 30 kilometers east of Havana, Cuba. My
oldest brother bought me my first set of mask; fins and snorkel all made by
Cressi, and taught me to free dive. We liked lobstering and spear fishing. In
1958, I watched Jacques Cousteau’s film Silent World and I was spellbound by
the magical world of underwater exploration and diving. I could not do any
diving in Cuba, because the government did not allow ordinary citizens to even
possess scuba gear. So I took on Spelunking. My interest in photography arose
from my desire to document and show the longer, deeper and unexplored caves
that my spelunking activities were taking me into. So I began borrowing my
brother’s Russian made Kiev 35mm SLR camera and an old wooden tripod. Coleman
gas mantle lanterns and light painting with a small flash unit were often the
only source of long-exposure illumination. As I finished my Geology degree,
photography became part of my job.
I was introduced to
diving and underwater exploration in 1975 by a group of French marine
geologists and oceanographers that visited Cuba while I was working as a
geologist for the Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Science Academy
of Cuba. It was really very interesting and exciting to travel all around Cuba
on a ship exploring the submerged insular shelf or “Cuban Platform.”
In 1980 came to the
US during Mariel boatlift, worked hard, and studied even harder to receive my
Master’s and Ph.D. degrees on Marine Geology and Geophysics from the Rosenstiel
School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (RSMAS). In 1995, I received the
Walton F. G. Smith Award, given annually for the outstanding Ph.D.
dissertation.
In 1984, I got my
first Nikon an EM, the best I could afford as a graduate student. In the 90’s I
upgraded to a Nikon N80. Then came my first DSLRs, a D70S, D80 and D 7000
the camera I am now using with an Ikelite housing and two DS125s. So I have
only been seriously doing underwater photography for five years. Fortunately,
on September 2009, while on a field trip with my students in Key Largo, I met
Amaury Cruz, who very politely explained to me that a Sealife DC1000 was not
the best choice for serious UW photography. His advice was to get my best DSLR
in a housing with one or two powerful strobes. He also introduced me to SFUPS.
Being a member and having being mentored by him and Suzan Meldonian have helped
me to improve my UW photo skills. In 2011 I attended the Second UW Photography
Guide Workshop in Anilao where I polished and improved my skills with Mike
Bartick and Scott Geitler, both took their time and taught me many important
techniques. But I must admit that even thought I just won
a First Place in a significant contest I still have much to learn.
I work at Miami-Dade
College, where I hold the rank of Professor with the Department of Natural
Sciences at the Wolfson Campus. I teach Oceanography and Geology, which gives
me an opportunity to describe and showcase the beauty of the Natural World as
well as to warn the students about the threats it faces. Nature and Underwater
photography have both provided me with a tool to document the changes taking
place in the natural world. My major photographic interests are Nature
Photography mostly Wildlife and National Parks Landscapes as well as Underwater
Photography from Macro to Wide Angle. However, lately I have found myself
dedicating more and more time to capturing the wonders and beauty of the
underwater world, in particular the ecology of coral reefs. Actually I am living
my childhood dream, as it’s fullest.
