David Fleetham is one of the most published underwater photographers in the world. He began diving and photographing underwater in 1976 and has been in Hawaii since 1986. For the first ten years he photographed in the cold, but rich waters of British Columbia, Canada, and worked as a PADI Instructor and USCG Certified boat captain in various dive businesses in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. From Hawaii, David has been on assignments to, Indonesia, The Galapagos Islands, South Africa, The Bahamas, Micronesia, Australia, the Sea of Cortez, China, the Red Sea, the Socorro Islands, numerous locations in the South Pacific and Caribbean, and back to the cold waters of British Columbia.
David's photographs have been published around the globe, with over two hundred magazine covers to date. In 1991 his photograph of a sandbar shark appeared on the cover of LIFE. It is the only underwater image to ever be published on the cover. His award winning work has been published by National Geographic (he has done several assignments for The NGS), The Cousteau Society, and every North American diving publication. In 2010 David’s image of a manatee was selected from 50,000 entries as the grand prizewinner in the professional division of the National Wildlife Federation’s photography contest. Galleries and agents in over 50 countries reproduce David’s images thousands and thousands of times each year. The American Museum of Natural History, The Smithsonian Museum, The North Carolina Museum of Natural History, The London Zoo, Hong Kong Museum, The Maui Ocean Center, The Waikiki, Vancouver, Monterey Bay, New Jersey State, Ripley’s and the Aquarium of the Americas all display his work.
Photo Maui Judges
David Fleetham
Douglas J. Hoffman
Ron Dahlquist grew up in Southern California and began his career as a surf photographer. In the early 70’s, he moved to Colorado. He shot skiing in the winter and everything from rodeos to rafting in the summer. The diversity of each season in the Rocky Mountains brought endless creative opportunities. While living in Colorado, he also managed to make many trips to Hawaii to shoot the big surf. Even though Ron loved Colorado, he became captivated by the beauty and splendor of the islands. In the late 80’s, he made Maui home. Ron currently shoots editorial, commercial, and stock photography with his passion being travel photography. His photographs range from sports to sensitive pictures of the environment. He has won numerous awards throughout the years. Recently, Ron won "Best Sports Photo" and "Best in Show" in the Professional Photographer's of America photography contest. The previous year, his photograph of a surfer in the barrel of a wave won first place in the International Photography Awards, Sports Category. Ron’s photo of Makua Rothman riding a 66ft. wave at Jaws in November of 2002 won the Billabong XXL Big Wave Award.
He has been published in numerous books including the recent Day in a Life series "24/7" and the ASMP "10,000 Eyes". He also has 6 books that are solely his work including the beautiful coffee table book "Under a Maui Sun". Throughout his career, he has had 100’s of covers to his name. A few of the publications that Ron’s photos have appeared in include: Life, Time, National Geographic World, National Geographic Adventurer, Forbes, Esquire, Runner’s World, Outside, Islands, Family Fun, Conde Nast Traveler, Outside, Powder, Ski, Surfer’s Journal, Snowboarder, and Windsurfer.
© 2011 Photo Maui, Lahaina Arts Society and Lahaina Arts Association - All Rights Reserved
Douglas is living his dream as a professional photographer. Whether creating portraits of a scenic waterfall or newborn Humpback Whale, his goal is to create portraits that evoke an emotional response.
Douglas began his career in 1989, and has worked as a dive master, instructor, and photo pro on live-aboard boats and land based resorts in Fiji, Hawaii, Indonesia, Palau, and Tonga. With well over 10,000 hours experience Douglas is as impassioned about the sea as ever and is always looking forward to then ext dive.
In an effort to give back, Douglas created Art for Conservation. This program supports local and international non-profit organizations by donating image libraries and funds from the sales of fine art. The photographs are used to promote preservation, create educational programs, and increase public awareness. Funds that are generated through the sale of art go directly to specific campaigns to end whaling, and shark finning.
Recent programs include the Humane Society International which used six shark photographs in a campaign to end shark finning. Last year the Whale Dolphin Conservation Society used Douglas’s sperm whale images as the face of a campaign to end commercial whaling.
Hoffman offers underwater, lanscape, portrait and lighting workshops in Maui, and schedules three photography/dive adventures each year.
For the last 12 years Douglas and his wife Mieko have owned Maui Photography Inc., specializing in on location family portraiture. Douglas is a past president of the Maui Professional Photographers, and active member of the Professional Photographers of Hawaii and the Professional Photographers of America. In 2011, Douglas met the requirements to receive the Professional Photographers of America’s Master of Photography degree, and looks forward to receiving the degree at the annual conference in January of 2012.