About Natural History Photography - Phillip Colla

I am a natural history photographer and writer. I focus on wild marine mammals, the California kelp forest, inhabitants of remote eastern Pacific islands, National Parks of the American West and, most recently, waves and surfing. I am fortunate to have visited many spectacular terrestrial and underwater settings as well as to have encountered a variety of threatened and endangered animal species in the ocean. My natural history photography has appeared in the pages of BBC Wildlife, National Wildlife, National Geographic Magazine, Ocean Realm, New York Times, Ranger Rick, Reader's Digest, and Skin Diver, has been used in various advertising and publicity campaigns, is in use in aquaria and museums, and is occasionally recognized in photographic competitions. My underwater videography has been broadcast in various productions in the United States and abroad.

My photography has been commended in past Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Nature's Best contests, the two most significant and competitive wildlife photography competitions in the world.

Particular strengths of mine include an understanding of the underwater dynamics of socializing and competing humpback whales, using breath-hold diving to obtain spectacular images of marine animals large and small, and combining personal experience and factual research into exciting natural history writing. I am probably the only photographer in the world whose catalog includes underwater images of blue whales (the largest animal ever to have lived), rare endangered Guadalupe fur seals, Pacific white-sided dolphins, socializing groups of sperm whales, a newborn gray whale calf in the wild, humpback whale competitive ("fighting") groups, the odd ocean sunfish (Mola mola), distant and pristine Rose Atoll National Wildlife Sanctuary, and Olympic champion swimmers accompanied by wild dolphins. Most of my photographs are taken breathhold diving, far from shore.

Periodicals / News / Wire:

BBC Wildlife, National Geographic Magazine, National Wildlife and International Wildlife (NWF), GEO, Nature's Best, Nature, Science, All Animals, Ocean Realm, Scientific American, Sportfishing, Saltwater Sportsman, Reader's Digest, Tauchen (Germany), Islands, Skin Diver, Scuba Diving, Sport Diver, Dive (UK), Sea Magazine, Highlights for Children, Unterwasser (Germany), Pacific Coast Sportfishing, Marine Photo (Japan), Natural World (UK), Living Planet (Australia), Surfing Girl (sweeeet), Carve Surf (UK), Boards (UK), Wildlife Conservation, Sports Illustrated for Kids, The New York Times, United Press International, USA Today, Ranger Rick and My Big Backyard (NWF), Outdoor California, California Wild

Advertising / PR / Marketing / New Media

Pacific Life, Smith Barney, Patagonia Inc., Walt Disney Imagineering, Epcot Center Florida, SurfLine.com

Books / Calendars:

National Geographic Society Books, BBC Books, World Books Publishing, World Wildlife Fund, American Greetings, Time Inc., Prentice Hall, Cambridge University Press, John Wiley and Sons, Houghton-Mifflin, McGraw-Hill, US Postal Service, Orion Books (UK), Enslow Publishers, Thomson Learning, Pearson Education, Guiness World Records, Scholastic, McDougal Littell, Voyageur Press, Nature Company Guides, Trident Press (UK), Grange Books (UK), Heinemann (UK, NZ), Dorling Kindersley (UK), Colin Baxter (UK), Sichtweise Verlag (Germany), Lonely Planet Guides, Stone Creek Publications, Mondadori (Italy), Kodansha (Japan), Portal calendars

Gov / Museums / Aquaria / Scientific, Environmental and Research Organizations:

National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Georgia Aquarium (Atlanta), John Shedd Aquarium (Chicago), American Museum of Natural History (NY), Monterey Bay Aquarium, Florida Aquarium, Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, Royal Ontario Museum (Canada), Scripps Institute of Oceanography Steven Birch Aquarium, Newport Aquarium (Kentucky), Denver Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles Zoo, Columbus Zoo, Houston Zoo, Artis Zoo (Amsterdam), Oregon Zoo, Calgary Zoo, World Wildlife Fund, Sea Shepard Society, Defenders of Wildlife, International Fund for Animal Welfare, ASPCA, Wildlife Conservation Society, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, Point Reyes National Marine Sanctuary, Southern Methodist University, University of Southern California, Catalina Conservation Society, Ocean Conservancy, Oceana, New England Aquarium, Siam Ocean World, Harvard Museum, Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research, Project AWARE.