Photography
I find it almost crazy that you can just push a button and stop time. Pausing life for a moment to investigate or replay just a single moment, or even a fraction of a moment. In the past couple years photography has gone from just pushing buttons to a full blown passion for me. I feel that it is such a powerful tool for conservation, especially when combined with today’s media platforms. You can capture jaw dropping encounters and bring the beauty and mystique of our oceans to humans that have never had the chance to even glance across the ocean. To me, that power is almost surreal. Not only can we bring a voice to those who can not speak for themselves, but it means we can inspire even those living the furthest from the ocean to fall in love with it, and all of its beautiful inhabitants too.
Make sure to follow Jay Clue on Instagram for more pics! If you are interested in purchasing a print or licensing a photograph, please contact us for more info.
Exploring other worlds in California. Astrophotography is quickly becoming my new favorite hobby when I’m not underwater. I love the serene and humbling feeling of being out in the middle of nowhere in the quiet of night under millions of stars. It reminds you how small we humans really are on the grand scale of the universe and how our lives are such a very short spark in in the immense galactic history books.
About the photo- Shot on the @sonyalpha Alpha 1 using the Sony 16-35mm GM lens and @hoyafilterusa Starscape filter. This is a 10 shot stack shot at 35mm, f2.8, 10 seconds, and 6400 ISO while using @goalzero low level lighting.
Waking up Monday morning like…. 🥱
What are you looking forward to this week? I’m stoked to be going to California to shoot the ancient bristlecone forest and then off to the Long Beach Scuba Show next weekend! If you’re in the area def come by and say hello! I’ll be at the Dive Ninja booth 307! Look forward to meeting more of you awesome ninjas!
Imagine being in crystal clear blue water surrounded by 8+ oceanic white tip sharks. Then finishing the day under some of the darkest star filled skies you’ve ever seen. So dark that the Milky Way looks fake because it’s glowing so bright. This past week was like a dream! I’ve been trying to shoot oceanics for the past couple year but things kept getting in the way. This trip almost looked like it wasn’t going to happen when the weather took a turn and high winds kicked up causing us to have to postpone our project for a week. But in the end we were finally able to get out and… WOW! It was incredible! Cat Island might just be my new favorite place on earth. I can’t wait to get home and sort through all the footage and photos, but in the meantime here’s a little teaser of what’s to come!
And for all those asking, YES! @diveninjas will be be running special trips there next season so give them a shout to get on the waiting list. Plus, me and my buddy @stanmoniz have decided to run one of our Above and Below photo workshops there too! More info coming soon! Shoot a DM to be the first to know when the info drops!
Shot on the @sonyalpha A1 using the Sony 16-35mm F4 in a @nauticamhousings
Planet Earth. ‘That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives here. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam… The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves… Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.’
— Carl Sagan
Happy Earth Day 🌎
This weekend just after dawn we encountered a school of mobula rays that tracked over 3 miles long on GPS (almost 5kms). It is one of the largest schools we have on record to date. The slapping sounds of thousands of these Munk’s Devil Rays echoed across the ocean from all directions and made you feel like you were inside a giant popcorn factory with the never ending pop, pop, pop sounds for 2.5 hours. Every direction we looked you could see rays leaping from the water almost all the way out to the horizon. It was mind blowing, yet so serene and beautiful.
Every year tens of thousands of these acrobatic mobula rays aggregate around the coasts of Baja California Sur, Mexico. Seeing thousands of them take flight above the waves or watching them peacefully glide through the water below the surface is unlike anything else on earth.
Shot in the @sonyalpha A1 using a Sony 100-400mm GM lens.
Let’s kick off the week with a little shark game! Who can guess the species of this shark? Will give you 1 hint! It was spotted at a cleaning station on San Benedicto Island, Mexico in the eastern pacific.
Researchers say mantas are the most intelligent fish on our planet. They have massive brains, can recognize themselves in mirrors, and have even created ways of essentially using tools to help them feed. After 2 years of not visiting Socorro I was unexpectedly greeted by 2 familiar faces this trip. A few mantas I’ve spent time photographing on past trips seemed to swim directly up to me, then proceed to unroll their cephalic fins as they glided motionless eye to eye only a few feet away. Almost as if they were saying hello to an old friend. It makes you wonder, was this just a rare coincidence my human brain is trying to turn into something it wasn’t, or could it be something more?
Big shout out to @pacificmantaresearchgroup for all their hard work with these incredible creatures.
Shot on the @sonyalpha Alpha 1 using a Sony 16-35mm lens in a @nauticamhousings thanks to @backscattervideophoto
Looking out into the blue from within the Secret Cave at Wolf Island. Being inside this massive sea cave located in the Galapagos Archipelago feels like you are inside a forgotten sunken cathedral. The sun’s rays dance down from the surface as the waves above crash against the cliffs. Inside you find resting sea turtles, white tip sharks, and schools of fish using it as a sanctuary from predators and the unforgiving nature that can lie outside its walls. While playful sea lions and fur seals have turned its short passageways into an underground playground.
🧜♀️ : @dangwanders
Shot on the @sonyalpha Alpha 1 using the Sony 16-35mm F4 lens all protected in a @nauticamhousings
Just returned home after leading an awesome trip in Galapagos with @girlsthatscuba and @diveninjas One the most remarkable things about diving in Galapagos is the sheer abundance of life you find underwater. At Darwin Island there was this massive cloud of creole fish creating what looked like a wall just off the reef. To me, just floating inside this giant school watching them fill your view in every direction as they peacefully snacked on plankton was one of my favorite highlights of the trip. Every so often you’d find random big animals like this lone hammerhead, or mobulas, turtles, and other sharks just cruising through the immense school. It makes you wonder if they were also enjoying the almost hypnotizing beauty of these tens of thousands of small fish around them.
Shot on the @sonyalpha A1 in a @nauticamhousings with a Sony 16-35mm f4 lens. I can not get over how incredible the dynamic range and color is on the A1. So happy with with the new cam! Thanks @samys_camera and @backscattervideophoto! Plus a massive shout out to @master_liveaboards for a great trip!
The way large schools of fish move together as a one is mesmerizing. It’s almost like thousands of shards of bright silver forming a ball of liquid metal. Exploding to escape predators as they rocket in to attack, then forming back into a solid ball immediately after the strike. I could spend hours just watching how they move, melting into different forms and shapes yet some how every one of them moving in harmony together.
This school was photographed in Cabo San Lucas a few weeks ago near Land’s End. It was so large that when a few Amberjacks came in to hunt them you could physically hear the school bolt out of the way of the predators. The water movement they created with every sudden movement sounded like a thunderstorm below the waves. 🌊 🌊
Jellyfish are one of the oldest known forms of animal life. They’ve existed on our earth for over 500 million years and have survived all 5 mass extinction events. Most likely they will survive the sixth as well as be here far beyond us humans. Yet some how they have done this without even having a brain. They’re fascinating creatures.
It makes me wonder sometimes what it would be like to be a jellyfish, just cruising around the ocean riding currents and tides. Imagine not having a brain filled with never ending thoughts and the daily craziness around us. After the crazy couple weeks I’ve had and seeing everything going on right now in our world it sounds almost zen to be almost ignorant to the world around us for even a few moments.
Happy Valentine’s Day ninjas! Let’s spread some ocean love today. I want to hear your sweetest wildlife encounters in the comments!
I’ll start it off with the story behind this cute little tater tot. On a cold dark morning in north Florida as the sun was just breaking over the horizon I met eyes with this very young manatee calf. She quickly swam towards me. Before I could even understand what was going on, she climbed directly onto my chest and wrapped her front fins around me and began playing with my beard. I’ve always been a huge proponent of not touching wildlife so I tried to back away but she quickly decided I wasn’t getting away and continued to cuddle up on my chest. Eventually she would swim off to visit her mom giving me a chance to move away… but what happened next would melt my heart.
After about 5 minutes I thought she was gone, then all of a sudden I feel something grab my leg from underwater. I look down to see her coming up from the depth below and wrapping herself around my leg before using it to pull herself back up to my chest. This cycle would go on for the next hour. She’d wrap her front fins around me and rest on my chest, then leave me for a 5-10 minutes. I’d swim away to somewhere else. Then somehow she’d find me again and climb back onto me. It was one of the sweetest wildlife encounters I’ve ever had in the ocean - rivaling playing peak a boo with a week old humpback calf in Tonga.
But you may ask, how did I know it was the same baby manatee? Well, sadly this little youngster had been injured already in her very short time on this earth and her left fin had been amputated to about half the length of the other.
To see this was heart breaking, knowing that such a sweet and young creature had already experienced such trauma and even worse it was most likely due to human impact. But I find some solace in knowing that there are some amazing humans out there looking after these beautiful creatures and they took her to have surgery to fix the fin so she can live out her life. This Valentines Day let’s celebrate our love for all life on this rock we call home and try our best to lead by example and be a better human. Much love ninjas.
Getting up close and personal in Bimini with one of my favorite sharks - the elusive Great Hammerhead! These sharks were the first thing that drew my curiosity to the ocean as a child after reading an article about them in an old kids magazine at my elementary school library. What’s your favorite shark?
Want to get close to these incredible creatures and learn about the cutting edge research being done to better understand and protect them? Join me this December with @biminisharklab and @diveninjas for a very special shark research experience! Check the link in my bio for more info
Did you know scientists identify individual whale sharks using an algorithm originally designed for the NASA Hubble Space Telescope to map star fields? Their skin patterns look like a star filled night sky, so much so that their name in Madagascar—“marokintana”—actually means “many stars.”
This was one of the many reasons me and my buddy @stanmoniz were drawn to hosting one of our Above & Below workshops here in La Paz, Mexico. Not only will we be photographing star filled clear night skies, but also learning how to photograph the world’s largest fish who just happens to also look like a star filled sky. During the trip I’ll also be giving a talk about whale shark conservation and how your photos can help local research projects. Want to join us on this adventure? Check the link in my profile for more details or give me a shout!
Soaking up those last bits of sunshine before it sinks below the horizon. The sunsets in La Paz are some of the most beautiful in Baja.
But just before the sun sets it creates this ethereal scene underwater with golden rays dancing off the surface’s ripples and waves. This is one of my favorite shots from our last sunset session in La Paz. I love the light effects you can get when the sun is low on the horizon and how it makes the sand particles floating in the water sparkle like gold flakes.
Want to learn how to shoot underwater portraits like this? Join me and @stanmoniz this November in La Paz for very special Above & Below photography workshop. Check the link in my bio for more info.
🧜♀️: @anaposada25
📷: @sonyalpha A7RIV in a @nauticamhousings
Super stoked to announce an awesome new project today! Join @StanMoniz & @jayclue this November for a very special Above & Below photography workshop in La Paz, Mexico. Whale sharks, sea lion puppies, desert landscapes, crystal clear dark skies, and so much more! 🌊 🏜
Throughout the week we’ll be covering underwater, landscape, aerial, and astrophotography to help you get killer shots both above and below the water! Plus Stan will be hosting a special long exposure workshop and Jay will be running a special underwater portraits workshop with one of our favorite mermaids, @anaposada25 🧜♀️
Click the link in our bio for more info and to reserve your spot today! Only 6 spots available.
Can’t believe one of my mobula shots was chosen for a 2 page spread in the latest @newsweek magazine!! So excited! Check out their new article on Trips Worth The Wait to see the pic and learn a little bit about @diveninjas Mobula Expeditions! Then join me and @sonyalpha photographer @stanmoniz for a very special photo workshop with the rays, and some of Baja’s beautiful landscapes and star filled skies this May! DM or check the link in bio for more details!
There’s something incredibly special about looking into the eyes of a white shark as it cruises past you. The feeling that you are essentially looking into the eyes of a member of an ancient family that has patrolled our oceans for around 6 million years helping keep ecosystems and populations in check. To put that in perspective modern Homo sapiens, us humans, only began to appear around 300,000 years ago. Great whites were around for over 5 million years before us humans were even a tiny sparkle in our planets history.
🦈 🌎
It’s mind boggling to think what life on earth might of been like before we arrived on the scene and began impacting the everything around us. Have you ever been in the water with a white shark? Join me this coming August at Guadalupe Island to learn more about these remarkable creatures. Visit the link in my bio for more details!
Super excited to be guest leading a very special photo workshop this May for @vikinginternationalphototours And even better it’s with the legend himself, my brother @stanmoniz !! This 6 day workshop is really different than any others I’ve seen before! We’ll be going through underwater photography, astrophotography, and landscape photography all in one trip! Plus it takes place during the planet’s largest aggregation of rays - Baja’s infamous mobula rays!! Our good friend and incredible mobula ray scientist, @martapalas co founder of @mobulaconservation will also be stopping by to teach us a bit about the rays. So stoked! For more info and to book check out the link in my profile. But hurry up there’s only 2 spots left on this special workshop!
After a week of strong winds plankton tends to get trapped in certain areas along the coast in the bay of La Paz. This creates a really special encounter as the whale sharks congregate together and instead of swimming steady to feed like normal, they hang at the surface barely swimming and instead just sip the plankton soup by opening their mouths and sucking water in. It’s an incredible encounter to see them so relaxed and watching them feed. We spent over an hour with this juvenile, but there were at least 10 other whale sharks all around us all doing the same thing. They truly live up to the gentle giants nickname. Did you know La Paz has one of the best protected & regulated whale shark ecotourism platforms in the world?
Starting off the week with a little salty sea puppy boop!
Just wrapped up a special @diveninjas La Paz expedition for our friends at @insiderdivers Had an awesome weekend playing with sea lion pups, whale sharks, shipwrecks and some awesome humans. Then this morning when I went to drive home my truck battery died… later i found out not only is the battery beyond dead but the engine needs some work too. Woo! Great way to kick off the week! 😣 But looking back at the interactions I had this weekend with this curious pup makes it all worth it. Sometimes life throws a bunch of stuff at us and we just have to take a sec to drive our focus back to the good things that are happening and not succumb to all the noise.
Just before the holidays we wrapped up a super special trip with @diveninjas to Bimini visiting our friends at @biminisharklab to learn about the incredible research they are doing and see some of the islands best kept sharky secrets. Over the next days we’ll be looking back at what I think is one of my new favorite marine research style trips. So make sure to check out the stories for an inside look at what it was like and see why I can’t wait to head back next December!
To kick it off let’s start with one of my favorite sharks, Joker! She tends to show up with the Great Hammerheads in Bimini but has such a completely different personality that totally lives up to her name. Interested in joining me next December? Check the link in my bio for info!