This photograph was chosen by Mass MOCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) for their website on Sol Lewitt (my favorite artist).  I photographed my niece’s black and gray stockinged foot next to Lewitt’s painting of the same color combination.  This was part of a trip through upstate New York and into western Mass. for my mom’s 70th birthday recently.

This may not be one of my best photos that I have taken but somehow it was chosen for inclusion in a recent Paris guidebook so therefore I am proud of it.  The photograph is of the Musee Carnavalet, Le Marais, Paris.  I hope I get more photos published.  I have a photo of two dueling turtles from the Galapagos that got published in the Miami Herald many years ago.  I have to go find that photo!

This photo was taken in the good old days with 35 mm print film using Fuji Velvia with 50 speed film close up at night near the shore underwater.  The fireworm was crawling across one of the large columns that held up a large shoreline plank walkway.  The juxtaposition of the red was so wonderful against the red encrusted column that I knew that it would be a fascinating shot.  All of these underwater photographs were taken pure with no cropping and with no post-production digital manipulation.

Another dive in Bonaire where I was more worried about hurting my camera equipment than myself since Bonaire is all shore diving.  When I was more of an avid (let’s say avid because that sounds better than fanatic) diver, I would go on so-called “live aboards” in which I could have my camera gear gently handed to me after I got into the water.  I could also get back onto board only after a crew member took my camera gear up onto deck and have it be placed onto a dedicated camera platform.  However, in Bonaire, I had to waddle backwards into a fomenting tide with my camera gear (and back in those days, my gear with housing and double articulated arms and strobes was very heavy and cumbersome) worried that my gear would crash precipitously against the multitudinous rocks.  Well, fortunately, my camera, my photography, and I have survived all of these trips unscathed.

As I have mentioned, all of these photographs were taken with 35 mm film without digital post-production modification or cropping.  They are pure film renderings of a bygone era where today everything is chopped and cropped.  Roatan was a great diving experience, and I happened upon this school of schoolmasters that just got within range to be shot with a macro lens and macro short strobe arms using 50 speed film.  The black background, the yellow fin, the open mouth, and the rows of fish make this photograph particularly captivating for me.

This photo was taken in the evening using a wide angle lens and 100 speed film.  The manta rays there were simply gorgeous creatures that came around the harbor to feed on plankton.  I remember holding a light on my head and I would see this huge twenty foot wing span creature come and glide right above my head brushing my hair to digest the plankton illuminated and gathered by my light.  As they are not meat eaters, I was not afraid but instead I was mesmerized.  This was one of my many live-aboard trips that I took in my twenties for diving.

Dr. Lam is a PADI certified divemaster and has dived around the world. He is also an accomplished underwater photographer and has had his photographs published in the Miami Herald. All photographs were taken with a housed Nikon N90s.