26
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FALL 2013
MEMBER
PROFILE
DIVE SLATE
//
many of us: the televised
10-year run (1966-1976)
of The Undersea World
of Jacques Cousteau.
Myhrvold was only 11
when the series began and
was a college student by
the time he was 14, so it
might seem unlikely that
this would provide lifelong
inspiration. Yet so active
was his imagination the
fantasy of underwater
exploration never left him. These documentaries provided the spark that finally
ignited decades later when he convinced some of his friends at Microsoft to go
to Hawaii and get certified. He already had a housed Nikon camera at that time,
which he had used while snorkeling in the Galapagos and elsewhere. But finally
being certified allowed him the luxury of time — unhurried access to marine life
and an opportunity to perfect his underwater photo techniques.
Myhrvold contends the two most compelling reasons for underwater
photographers to shoot digital are being able to acquire more than 36 images
per dive and the fact that immediate review is such a powerful educational
tool. He considers the prompt feedback cycle of digital photography
instrumental in accelerating the learning curve for so many people so quickly
— to the extent that there are a plethora of extraordinary marine images
floating in cyberspace these days. The opportunity to create is now much
greater than in the film era, when one had to be consciously committed to
underwater photography as a function of expense and degree of difficulty.
Enhanced technology and pervasive access to imaging tools (with even
smartphones being adapted to underwater use) coupled with the ease of
transmitting and sharing images, underwater photography now is in a period
of renaissance. That’s not to say Myhrvold has been willing to compromise
in quality just because easy imaging solutions are out there. He still travels
the world with several bulky Canon DSLR camera bodies and a variety of
underwater housings, ports, accessory viewfinders and strobes that further
encumber his dive trips.
Nathan Myhrvold
Nathan Myhrvold
