Underwater Photographer James Ferrara: An Exclusive Interview

His self-taught skills have garnered global recognition, with his work featured by giants like National Geographic and BBC Earth, alongside several wins in Ocean Art 2025, the Ocean Photography Awards and Underwater Photographer of a year along with a recent category win in the Nature Photo Contest. Having returned from a month-long expedition to Antarctica documenting the raw beauty of leopard seals and icebergs, James joins us to share his insights on the shift from free diving to scuba diving, his strategic approach to the world's biggest photography competitions, and his future ambitions in the industry.

Inside Scuba: James, it’s great to have you here. To start off, tell us a little bit about yourself—where you’re from and how you got into photography.

James Ferrara: Thanks, Byron. I’m 42 years old and I’ve lived in South Florida for pretty much my whole life. My main career is actually as a firefighter paramedic, which I’ve been doing for 18 years. Photography is my side gig, but the firefighting schedule is great because it allows me to take big blocks of time off to travel and shoot. I actually started about 10 years ago with a GoPro for my dives and just expanded from there.

Inside Scuba: Were you a diver before you picked up the camera?

James Ferrara: I was. I got scuba certified at 17, but then I got heavily into free diving for about a decade. After a few years of freedive photography I returned to scuba diving because it’s just so much easier for certain types of shots. However, those first five or six years of free dive photography really helped me. Having that urgency to get the shot before needing air helped me hone my composition skills under pressure.

Inside Scuba: You’ve had a lot of success recently in major competitions. What made you decide to move from just "having fun" to wanting to win awards?

James Ferreaa: About 8 years ago I went on a trip with Keri Wilk to Dominica. I felt like I took decent pictures at the time, but seeing his work and accolades really inspired and showed me what was possible. Since then we have become great friends and talk often about creating that “Wow” factor.

Recently, I started watching the Underwater Photography Show and Alex Mustard’s YouTube channel, which shifted my mindset on what it takes to get to that next level.

Inside Scuba: When the big three—DPG, Ocean Art, and UPY—all open at the same time, how do you choose which photos to enter?

James Ferrara: I used to "spam" competitions by entering five or six similar images, thinking the judges might like one of them, but that was a bad strategy. Now, I pick a handful of different images and styles and spread them across categories. I usually save specific images for UPY because I know they value being the first to see a shot.

I also have a close group of underwater photo friends that are brutally honest and I use them as a sounding board for images I feel have potential to do well in competitions.

Inside Scuba: You’re very active on Instagram. Do you post your competition entries there before the results are in?

James Ferrara: No, if I’m entering a photo, I won’t post it until the competition is over. Everyone follows everyone, and if a judge has already seen a photo on social media, it might not feel as special when they see it during judging. I want that first impact to happen when they see it in the contest.

Inside Scuba: Your leopard seal shots from Antarctica really stood out because you used strobes and slow-shutter techniques when most people stick to ambient light. What was that experience like?

James Ferrara: It was intense. Our first encounter was after dark, which was scary because the seal would leave the iceberg and disappear into
the depths and then suddenly pop up right between your fins. I started with ambient light, but the ISO was too high, so I switched to strobes.

During our third encounter, which was towards end of trip, the seal was very aggressive, which gave me many opportunities for photos. I felt like I had a good variety of shots, and knowing this may be my last chance of the trip to photograph them, I decided to try some slow shutter. I had not seen many, if any slow-shutter leopard seal shots before and thought it would be unique.

Inside Scuba: What advice would you give to someone who is desperate to win their first underwater photography competition?

James Ferrara: First, get your basic techniques and lighting dialed in. Beyond that, finding a unique subject or behavior is important, but even common subjects can win awards if you can capture them in a unique position or environment that has not been seen before. Also, do your research, look at the winning archives of the competition you are entering, not only to get inspiration but to see what won last year. If you have something very similar, there is a good chance, especially if the judges are the same, they won’t award it again immediately in the following year.

Inside Scuba: Finally, where do you want to go from here? What is your ultimate photographic ambition?

James Ferrara: I want to show longevity—I don't want to just have one good year and fizzle out. I’m currently learning macro photography to become a more well-rounded photographer. Eventually, when I retire from firefighting in about 10 years, I’d love to transition into guiding and running workshops to give back and teach what I’ve learned.