Interview with Wildlife Photographer of the Year - Rising Star Portfolio Award Winner, Sage Ono

Sage Ono recently won the Rising Star Portfolio Award at the prestigious 60th Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition for his collection, The Serengeti of the Sea. The portfolio featured six stunning images showcasing life within the kelp forests of Monterey Bay, California. As Wildlife Photographer of the Year is one of the most respected competitions in the field, this recognition marks a significant achievement for Ono. We had the opportunity to catch up with him to discuss his journey in both scuba diving and underwater photography, as well as his award-winning portfolio.

IS: Congratulations on your recent win with Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY). You have had quite a journey to get to this point. How did you get into scuba diving?

SO: My grandfather studied marine biology and taught diving in his younger years so I fell in love with the ocean through his stories of Oregon and Florida diving. I have always loved the water and swam competitively through college so diving was inevitable. Both of my parents were certified and I got certified when I was 12 at Playa del Carmen. We did mostly Caribbean diving, but once I graduated college, I was able to branch out in my destinations.

IS: At what point in your diving career did you pick up a camera? Tell us about your progression in underwater photography.

SO: I, like most photographers, started with a GoPro. Then it was a constant cycle of hitting the limits of the current camera and saving for an upgrade. I went GoPro -> Sealife -> Canon G7X -> Olympus OMD-EM1 ii -> Nikon D850. I started with taking "proof I saw it pictures" until some random person on a Facebook group emphasized the difference between a picture of a subject and an intentionally composed photograph with artistic merit. The idea of pushing to create images that are more than a picture of a thing or a behavior has become a sort of northern star for my photography.

IS: You moved to Monterey, California a few years ago. Was part of the reason you moved there for the diving and photography opportunities?

SO: I graduated from college during the pandemic so when it came to choosing where to live, underwater photography played a huge role. I needed to live near the ocean. Any ocean. I moved to California because I figured I would eventually have to go into the office, though I never did. I spent a few months in San Diego, a year in Santa Cruz, and eventually settled in Monterey. After a year of driving between Santa Cruz and Monterey, I moved down to Monterey Bay because I nearly fell asleep at the wheel a few times and got sick of the whopping 45 minute drive. If I could have chosen any destination in the world at the time, I'm not sure it would have been California. I had dove kelp forests before, but I didn't have any special attachment at the time. 

IS: Have you always been a cold / temperate water diver or was this new for you? If so, how did you find the transition?

SO: Most of my diving previously had been Caribbean, so it was a huge shift. I do not like the cold so I actually refused to dive until I got drysuit certified and I missed out on a lot of San Diego diving because of that.

For me, kelp forests are really the key to what makes cold water diving worth it. Unlike coral reefs, kelp forests are a truly 3D environment. There are interesting photographs to be created everywhere, from the holdfasts to the canopy. Add to that, the seasonality of subjects and there is nothing else like cold-water diving in Monterey. That said, if I could have all the best parts in 80F (26.6C) degree water, I would gladly take it.

IS: You volunteer as a survey diver to monitor the kelp forests. Tell us more about how you got into that and what it entails.

SO: I got into it because a close friend was the volunteer coordinator and it completely shaped how I think about my diving and photography. From April to September, we visit different sites along the coast to collect ecosystem data including the diversity and density of kelp, fish, and invertebrates which is collected by checking every nook and cranny along a 30m (98 ft) swath and collecting environmental data by sampling random points at 1m (3 ft) intervals and noting the cover (algae type, invert, bare, etc.), rugosity (verticality of the reef), and substrate (is it sand, cobble, boulder, or reef.)

These surveys gave me a much greater understanding of the species inhabiting the kelp forests, the environmental threats the forest is facing, and the overall dynamism of the ecosystem. This gave me a better eye for noticing when something is out of place, rare, or unusual as well as informs the context of the images I take. I highly recommend taking the time to volunteer as a scientific diver if it is possible.

IS: You've been gaining success in photography competitions, with your Underwater Photographer of the Year (UPY) win and now with Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY). What is your approach to selecting and entering competitions?

SO: When selecting competitions, I will enter a fairly wide array. There are factors that will prevent me from entering contests. Specifically if the judging process is not well disclosed or the organizations gains unreasonable levels of usage rights simply from submitting. Other than that it boils down to what I have time for.

That said, I have a preference for contests that value conservation and diversity of subjects and techniques. WPY and UPY stand out to me in that regard.

When it comes to how I approach entering competitions, I would note two things. First is that, different contests certainly have different preferences. In some contests, warm water reef subjects are borderline shunned while in others the opposite is true. It’s good to be aware of in general. Second, is that contests are not the final mark of whether an image is "good". There are more great images than there are awards, so there is always an element of luck. If an image doesn't perform well, that doesn't mean it or the photographer are "bad." Don't read into it too much I guess?

IS: How did you make the decision to enter the images in a portfolio category rather than individual categories?

SO: The shortest and best answer is that a kelp forest is far too complex to be captured by a single image. So a portfolio can give a more interesting and nuanced view.

The funnier answers are the fact that while WPY has a Plants & Fungi category, kelp is neither so it didn't quite feel right and that it seemed like a fun gamble to enter a portfolio based on algae to a wildlife competition.

I also entered 15 other images in individual categories that did not go the distance.

IS: What current camera system, housing and strobes are you using? 

SO: I am using a Nikon D850, Retra Pro strobes, and a Nauticam housing. Though I am partial to the Backscatter MF-2 in the right scenarios.

IS: For our readers who want to be successful in underwater photography competitions, do you have any tips?

SO: Here are some assorted thoughts...

• Be relentlessly picky and confident in your own tastes. Learning from other photographers is great from a technical perspective, but following your own tastes is more likely to lead to photos that no one has made before.

• Related to the last one, but study other photographers and imagine how you would improve on every image. This gives you a better sense of opportunities for unique images.

• Shoot local if you can. The chances of traveling somewhere new for a week and taking a photo better than the photographers who live there are low. Easier to be the local photographer who has time, knowledge, and luck on their side.

• Contests have biases. There is no way around that. You don't have to follow them, but it is good to be aware of when selecting entries. Study past awarded images.

• Judges also have biases, so studying their work can be good.

• Read the rules and follow them. There can be a lot in the fine print of contest details and images really do get disqualified because the photographer did not add a caption.

• This should be a no-brainer, but many judges know animal behavior very well. Don't stress, pose, or manipulate the animal.