Shelton Dupreez
LOVE OUR OCEANS
In 2021 we relaunched our #loveouroceans crew campaign. A chance for those out on the water to share their inspired moments captured on film. To show why our oceans, and the life within them, are worth loving and why the waters we all enjoy – as an office backdrop and or adventure playground – inspire us on so many levels. We would like to thank everyone who sent in their photos, helping us raise awareness of our oceans and it’s our pleasure to showcase a selection of some of those submitted.
Lia Johnson-Strike
Inspiring others to love our oceans is integral to their protection. It’s why, as part of our #loveouroceans campaign, all photos entered were in chance of being featured on the cover of this year’s Finest Moments – a prestige usually only given to yachts or Owners themselves. Congratulations to Shelton Dupreez for his incredible photo featured on the cover.
Lia Johnson-Strike
Remi Christian
Andrew Rother
Kyle Laughlin
Jamie Kirkwood
Daniel Sola
Llyn Buckwalter
“It was the wildlife of the far North that really inspired my love of photography – the Arctic, Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Norway – and it’s what led to my first real onboard dual role as Mate / Yacht Photographer – Filmmaker. My passion and long term goal has always been toward documenting natural history, and now it is centres around being involved in impactful conservation efforts.’’
It’s through his photography that Shelton feels he can do his small part in helping others love our oceans too. “I believe there are 3 major pillars to conservation: Science, Storytelling and Implementation. Each need the others to support change. It’s my job to tell the story – visualise it for others. Hopefully in such a way that resonates with the viewer and influences any decisions they make that could have an negative impact on the environment.”
LIFE THROUGH
A LENS
Working on board and photography go hand in hand for experienced crew member Shelton Dupreez – the photographer behind our winning Love our Oceans photo featured on the front cover. His hobby and passion for documenting nature, ocean life and scenery have defined his yachting career which now focusses on ocean-based photography projects for a variety of yachts and science research projects.
“The beauty of this photo lies in its illusion. This is an East African beach with a fringing reef running onto dry sand. For me this represents how the oceans draw us in and have the power to change our perception. What I like to call ‘Art in Water’.”
Shelton Dupreez
Shelton Dupreez - Winning photo featured on the front cover of Finest Moments 2021
SEALEGACY
HEALTHY AND ABUNDANT OCEANS
Inspiring others to love our oceans is exactly what photographer and storyteller Shelton Dupreez’s latest project is all about. He is working with SeaLegacy, an organisation whose mission is to ‘harness the power of storytelling, collective action, and crowdfunding to rebuild ocean life in this generation, for people and nature.’
“I was shooting on board a yacht for 2 months in Antarctica when I first met Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier, the founders of SeaLegacy. They were guests of the charter, shooting some of their own content during their week on board. Their work and mission aligned completely with my own vision skills and knowledge. They had just bought a 62ft catamaran called the SeaLegacy 1, and had plans to use it as a platform to document and tell the stories of conservation efforts around the world. Being a smaller boat, they needed a ‘Swiss Army knife’, as Paul calls it, who could captain the boat, as well as shoot, fly drones, dive, and handle everything else involved with living on a boat. Within 24hrs of us meeting, they asked if I would be that person.”
National Geographic photographers Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier, pictured here with Shelton Dupreez, started SeaLegacy because they wanted to do more than just tell stories for a magazine. They wanted to champion ocean issues by building an ever-growing community of ocean advocates willing to take action.
Covid put stop to Shelton’s time on board getting started right away and instead he started working for SeaLegacy as an editor, while they waited the hurricane season out. 7 months later and there was a window to get the boat ‘expedition style filmmaking’ ready and they headed off to the Bahamas. After captaining the catamaran for the first 4 months, Shelton now operates as SeaLegacy 1’s full time topside and underwater cameraman, doing his part to tell their story.
“My role now is to tell the story of what we are doing on board SeaLegacy 1 – the conservation efforts we work with, and to help capture content that will make people fall in love with the wildlife and ecosystems that we inevitably want to protect and preserve around the world.”
SeaLegacy 1 is the expedition catamaran that carries the team on a journey of adventure to film our world’s oceans.
“Being the largest and most defining ecosystem on our planet, the ocean’s problem is perhaps that humans, being terrestrial creatures, might not be able to fully comprehend the scope and scale of its importance to our survival.”
Cristina Mittermeier
“The ocean is the engine of our planet. Without it, there would be no life on Earth. Let that thought sink in for a moment, and then, commit to doing everything you can to keep it alive.”
Paul Nicklen
