Articles

A pale octopus sheltered inside a pipe, guarding a clutch of precious eggs, Australia
 

A Melbourne, Australia-based underwater photographer, technical diver, and PADI Master Instructor, Dave Baxter began diving on the Great Barrier Reef in 1990, becoming a PADI Instructor in 1995. He later worked with the world-renowned Mike Ball Dive Expeditions as the photo pro, teaching underwater photography with a SEA&SEA Motor Marine II film camera.

His passion for photography truly took off in the Maldives in 1999, when he bought a used Nikonos V with an SB-105 strobe and burned through hundreds of rolls of film chasing just a few good frames. In 2010, while in the Bahamas, he transitioned to digital underwater photography with a Nikon D300 in an Aquatica housing, photographing sharks and wide-angle subjects that the archipelago nation is famous for.

Today, Dave spends most of his underwater time in Australia, where he shoots with a Canon EOS R5 Mark II. His main focus is the remarkable macro life found beneath southern Australian piers, including seahorses, weedy seadragons, octopuses, cuttlefish, crabs, nudibranchs, gobbleguts, and other often-overlooked temperate-water species.

Snoot lighting, creative lighting, black backgrounds, animal behavior, and super-magnification are both his favorite techniques and his greatest frustrations. Through his work, he aims to show that cold, green water can hold just as much beauty, mystery, and emotional power as any tropical reef.
 

A school of oddly-named old wives gathered beneath the pilings of a popular jetty, Australia
 

A young weedy seadragon that has yet to develop its gaudy colors, Australia
 

Ghost pipefish come in a dazzling array of colors, and yellow might be the most striking, Australia
 

A jellyfish ambles along just below the surface, in the shade of a popular diving pier, Australia
 

A beautifully-matched pair of White’s seahorses cling to a sponge together, Australia
 

A blue-ringed octopus shelters inside a discared piece of plastic pipe, Australia
 

A striated anglerfish stretches out its jaws, keeping them limber and ready, Australia
 

Male cardinalfish are good dads, evidenced by this one mouthbrooding its clutch of eggs, Australia
 

A beautiful nudibranch hogs the spotlight, Australia
 

Hundreds of thousands of spider crabs arrive en masse each year to South Australia to molt and breed
 

A gorgeous black-and-white striated anglerfish patiently waits for prey, Australia
 

A spider crab mid-molt as its carapace slides off, Australia
 

An unfortunate molting spider crab meets its end in the mouth of a huge smooth ray, Victoria, Australia
 

To see more of Dave’s wonderful underwater work, please give him a follow on Instagram.