A lifelong water-woman, her breathtaking underwater photographs capture the drama of the world beneath the waves with uncommon passion and perfection.
Born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaii, Sarah Lee was destined to be a water-woman, and not surprisingly she was a long-distance competitive swimmer, water polo player and an avid surfer before she ever thought about becoming a photographer. She acquired her first camera at age 15 and quickly became as attached to her viewfinder as she was to the sea. Photography became an integral part of her dual passion and her means of expressing the magical world under the sea and revealing it to the world. Photographic artistry also came naturally to her, and she was quickly hired to capture people’s most precious moments. While she snapped her first few photos on land, as soon as she ventured beneath the surface of the ocean, her talent for photography and uncommon ease in working in some of the most difficult shooting environments resulted in an explosion of amazing images that catapulted the demand for her work.
In the last decade, Sarah’s photos have appeared on the home page of National Geographic, Instagram’s blog, CNN, and in magazines ranging from The Oprah Magazine and Cosmopolitan to the covers of Standup Paddle Magazine and Standup Journal. She’s also appeared in magazines like Marie Claire that featured a behind-the-scenes look into her fashion shoot for an Italian designer. Her images have a distinctive style that’s also recognized on social media where she has tens of thousands of followers.
Over the years, Sarah has been fortunate to work with incredible adventurers, including documenting one of the first people featured on the Discovery Channel’s hit series Naked and Afraid, Alison Teal of Alison’s Adventures. She has also provided commercial photos for brands ranging from Pelican Case and Axxe wetsuits to the mega retailer H&M, who have all hired and licensed Sarah’s photography to promote their brands and campaigns.
While Sarah’s Hawaii roots give her a lighthearted and care-free attitude making her laid back and easy to work with, her uncanny ability to keep things casual while magnifying the best in what surrounds her are evident in everything she shoots. Brands, magazines, professional athletes and adventurers take up most of Sarah’s camera time, yet she still carves time to shoot everyday people doing what they love for a variety of occasions from surfing to non-commercial portrait sessions.
Sarah Lee currently splits her time between Kailua-Kona, Hawaii and the quaint beach town of Encinitas in North County San Diego, California. She can usually be found attached to her swim fins or her viewfinder, and her mission is to keep adding to her professional work of all kinds, with an emphasis and special love for the water as well as capturing stories of passionate people and brands around the globe.
“I’d describe my photography as vibrant, youthful, aspirational, and maybe a little nostalgic, says Lee. “I strive to create something that captures the spirit of the sea or whatever subject is in front of me. My vision is to create images that capture and accentuate the beauty in what surrounds me. I guess you could say I was a serious enthusiast when I started just over 10 years ago during high school. I was quickly hired by my friends to take their portraits, photograph weddings, and shoot products for local companies before graduating high school, so I carried that through my college degree, and was unofficially a pro during that time. In 2011, I took time off my undergrad degree for two years and chased a travel-related opportunity that really got me going in the right direction.”
“To be specific, I accompanied noted filmmaker/adventurer, Alison Teal, who directs and produces an adventure series geared toward inspiring people about other cultures around the world by creating educational and entertaining films. We teamed up and I did photo and video content for her in different places like Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the Maldives, Canada, Switzerland, Bali, etc. I’d go around with her and work with her to tell the stories of local people, legends and cultures, most of it ocean and water related, many of which also convey an implicit environmental message. We’ve done this for the past 4 years and I am still working with her on this series.”
“As a teenager, my interest in photography grew out of my desire to be involved and interact with my peers in a creative and fun way,” continues Lee, “ and photography became my tool to do that… so in a way, it was already a mode of expression. Also, I was deeply in love with graphic design and filmmaking, so getting into photography allowed me to create new imagery I could play with in graphic design projects. I am primarily self-taught but I’ve adapted a lot of what I learned in my graphic design and video production classes in high school, and later film classes in college, to my photography.”
“I like to approach every opportunity I have to take photos as an experiment and method of making new discoveries,” notes Lee, and I always try to be open to whatever nature and the elements give me. My approach to photography is essentially spontaneous, because, for me, it’s more about capturing what’s actually happening than trying to orchestrate a scene. With water, many things are out of your control, and I love that. Whatever the water and light decide to do, you have to adapt to capture it. Stylistically, I’d like to say I was more influenced by the unique environment in which I grew up, the Big Island of Hawaii, as well as the endless hours I spent swimming in the ocean and pools than any particular photographer or style of photography. The natural world is what really influenced and inspired my photography, and it still does. If I had to specify my genres, you could say that it’s a mix of fine art and lifestyle. However going forward I’d like to work in a more photojournalistic way in terms of my water photography.”
“As far as equipment is concerned I now use a Canon 5Ds and a 5D Mark III, because it’s more important to me to have massive resolution and deliberately take a sequence of photos, than to shoot one million rapid-fire shots underwater. My go-to lens is the Canon 15mm f.2.8, but I’m thinking of getting the newer 8-16mm Canon zoom. The custom-built Dale Kobetich underwater housing I use is only really depth rated up to 16ft, but that’s usually the extent of the depth I need to go, because when capturing people underwater, the warm colors I like in my photographs are really only found within 10ft or less of the surface. I also rely on Dafin bodysurfing fins to get around underwater. Ninety-nine percent of what I do is all natural light. Lately I’ve been shooting underwater at sunrise or sunset to experiment with natural lighting from above.”
“I describe myself as laid back and easy going,” Sarah Lee concludes, “and I think a lot of my underwater photography work reflects that. Whether I’m photographing waves, people, or sea life, I just have to go with the flow … and watch out for changing ocean conditions! I’m attracted to underwater photography because of the lack of control I have in such a massive body of water and its constant state of change in the lighting, water clarity, currents, surf, etc. It’s somewhere where you have to be completely switched on and be able to adapt to anything it throws at you. It’s also a form of play for me. Composing shots can be difficult in the water, but I like to think of it as a creative challenge! Imagine being able to move up, down, left, right, and even upside down to compose a photograph. It can be a lot smoother and sometimes faster in the water to get the angle you want, since there’s not much gravity at play!”
Of course, Sarah Lee’s incredibly moving underwater images and the heartfelt quest to achieve them go well beyond fun and play, or even personal achievement. They express the magnificence of what it’s like to live on this planet and really interact, at the deepest level, with its transcendence.
To see more of Sarah Lee’s amazing work and find out more about her, please go to her website www.sarahleephotography.com.To see some of her best underwater work with more of a fine art emphasis, please go to http://www.vivantvie.com/Portfolio/Underwater/
The stories behind the images
Alison & the Alaia. People usually ride the alaia, the traditional Hawaiian surfboard, above water in waves. The way to get under waves is to dive under them and that’s what Alison is doing here. I shot this image at Kona on Big Island of Hawaii. The board was modeled after those used by ancient Hawaiians who surfed on boards of that style. The image has an enigmatic quality, and black-and-white accentuates the form. As I took this picture I was caught up in composition, shape and space, in the moment of the visual and creative challenge. Thinking about it later, it’s an incredible weightless feeling; kind of under the power of the ocean as it is passing through you. Canon 7D, in 2012; black-and-white conversion.
Talented singer Kimie Miner swimming into a coral reef in Hawaii. How do I get such brilliant colors? My trick is to make people wear white so I can properly white balance a photograph or a series in the same location. I shoot digital in RAW so can I get it in one take. C anon 5D Mark III, Aug 2015, Canon 15mm f/2.8—I love it this lens little but it’s an older one that has some falloff on the edges and some chromatic aberration. I’m thinking about getting a Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L.
Donica Shouse free diving with a school of akule at sunset. I captured this image at the golden hour under the water, possible in Hawaii where it’s very clear. The sun was at its ideal 45-degree angle to give a dramatic sunburst effect.
Set free by the sea. Surfer Alison swims underwater, below John John Florence as he surfs above the waves. We did plan this one out. I always wanted to get a girl swimming under a wave with a surfer on the waves in the same frame. It’s hard to time it like that, end even this one is not timed perfectly, but it’s close. Canon 7D in June 2012, 15mm f/2.8 Canon.
Underwater guitar: This is another image of Kimie Miner. She’s a music artist and it was her idea to take a guitar underwater, one of the many guitars in her collection. We worked together to take an art photo that conveys that she’s a water woman and also an artist singer/songwriter as well.
Sunset me free: Stephanie paddling out for a sunset surf in Hawaii. I took this above-water shot taken on a Canon 40D in 2009. She’s of my best friends, we went surfing together after college, and this image came out of that experience. For me it signifies jumping a back into the ocean after not being able to—the freedom, warmth and joy in that.
