Oceanographic magazine (OM): You grew up in Southern California, right by the ocean, and yet diving came to you relatively late. How did it finally happen?

Renee Capozzola (RC): “You’d think I’d have been diving and snorkelling from childhood, but it really wasn’t like that. I went to the beach with friends, sunbathing, boogie boarding, but none of my family or friends were divers.

Everything changed in 2004, when my husband and I were in Maui, Hawaii for a holiday. We wanted to try to find something different to do while we were there, so I suggested doing one of the PADI discovery dives.

We went down, very shallow, and this huge sea turtle came right up to us. Based on its size our guide estimated that it was roughly 70 or 80 years old. It seemed so calm, so unbothered by us with all our crazy scuba gear, making noise and bubbles. Something about that interaction felt so special, and I couldn’t believe that I had been missing out on this whole other world for so long.

We came home from the trip and within a month we had started our certification course. Once we found out what we were missing, we were completely addicted. I’ve now been diving for 22 years, and I wish I had started earlier.”

OM: That turtle clearly left a mark. Some of your most celebrated work features turtles, what is it about them that keeps drawing you back?

Renee Capozzola: “I actually lived in Hawaii for a period of time, so I have spent a lot of time there. Turtles are strongly protected there, so it’s common to see numerous turtles on one dive and they are quite used to seeing divers and snorkellers.

As a result, I’ve spent a lot of time underwater with turtles, and I’ve become quite good at reading their behaviour. I feel very calm in their presence and I know to give them time to decide if they’re going to accept me or not. I know how to approach them – slowly, slowly, slowly. That’s how I’ve been able to capture some of the images that I have.

I am also an animal lover and they are one of my top three animals I like to find underwater. After all these years, having seen so many turtles, I still get very excited every time I dive or snorkel with one.”

OM: How did that initial passion for diving translate into getting into underwater ocean photography?

Renee Capozzola: “In part because of my background as an oil painter. I started painting when I was seven, took private lessons, and entered art shows. My parents encouraged a more traditional professional route in medicine, but I always had that artistic instinct.

When I started diving, everything I was seeing underwater was so beautiful and different: the corals, the kelp, the animals. Initially, I just wanted to capture it to show my family and friends this whole new world.

I’m a perfectionist by nature though and I quickly began thinking: ‘God, these images kind of suck!’ I wanted to learn more about the technical side. I read Martin Edge’s book ‘The Underwater Photographer’ and went to talks at dive shows – notebook in hand and questions at the ready.

I had a compact camera for almost a decade, shooting in ambient light, which taught me great fundamentals: composition, reading light, understanding animal behaviour, waiting for the right moment. Around 2013 I added a strobe, and suddenly colour came back into the frame. Then in January 2016 I finally stepped up to a DSLR. The first day I used it I thought: ‘Why did I wait so long to do this?’”

OM: “Half-and-half” shots, split between above and below the waterline, seem to be a speciality of yours. What draws you to that framing?

Renee Capozzola: “There are several different answers to that. One of the last paintings I did as an oil painter was a half-and-half image: an underwater scene with dolphins, rays, corals and fish, and above the water, volcanoes and waterfalls. So I was already artistically fascinated with that double viewpoint.

I’d also been given David Doubilet’s book ‘Water Light Time’, which was a huge inspiration. As Doubilet points out, this composition allows you to show two worlds, which gives you a real creative freedom. A photograph of an animal in blue water tells you relatively little about where it lives. But a half-and-half shot places it in context. The mountains of Moorea behind a ray or the stilts of a pier above a reef.

I’ve also become more passionate about conservation photography, and part of that role is getting more people interested in the ocean. Most people in the world are not divers. A half-and-half shot allows you to show them something familiar – a sky, a shoreline, a sunset – and tie that to what’s beneath. Sharks, for example, are portrayed so negatively in the media. So I often try to pair them with a beautiful sunset, which I think shows them in a more positive light.

That said, while half-and-half images may be what I’m most associated with, my work has become much more diversified over time. I also shoot reefscapes, blackwater, whales in ambient light, caverns, macro, motion blur, and black and white photography. My portfolio has grown well beyond splits, and I’m proud of that.”