About ME

Photography from my soul...

The mission of my photography is to capture in coastal tide pools and the underwater environment, rarely seen moments in time.  The ideal here is to have an image flip from realism, photo-realism…to an abstract image imagined but very real. 

The ocean has always been an inspiring companion of mine; I am a lifelong sailor and US Coast Guard Merchant Mariner, swimmer and wave rider. Just being in the ocean stirs up a soulful feeling of joy and wonder in me. Living at the beach I look at the water as a magic mirror with all it’s reflections of light and color, above and below the surface. Looking through that magic mirror, I take my camera down under to capture and offer my experience to others in the language of tide pool photography.

One image may be of purple sea urchins that present microscopic tendrils, another the panoramic colors of a luscious sea anemone lit up by sun beams. Perhaps an unseen sculpin fish will dash before my lens just before the shutter clicks. Yes, many photobombers cruise the tide pools!  Whatever the tide pool holds, my camera and I work together to manifest this underwater world, to evoke emotions and stir up unexpected feelings.

We bring to light images that many have never been seen before, even by me.

Ober Reef Photography is based out of Laguna Beach, CA. I have been creating these photographs for almost half a decade. While I mainly photograph the tide pools of the Laguna Beach coastline, there are no limits. One of my goals is to photograph tide pools around the world.

There is no manipulation of these images on the computer or a darkroom. They are what my eye discovers and my camera captures. This sea life of shapes, colors and forms amazes and astounds me as they appear in my work. My intention has always been to explore these tide pools, not to alter them. I work to find the right camera angle from which the inhabitants and the environment can be the most they can be – whatever that is! The intimacy of the tide pools allows me to explore space, angles, reflections and light as they constantly change with the tide, currents and orbit of the sun.

As an ocean person, my concern with saving our oceans is personal and vital to our environment. As an underwater/tide pool photographer, I become a representative for these saltwater inhabitants, and a spokesperson for saving their abstract cosmos by showing the world how life can be, beneath the sea, in a tide pool of reflections and light.

Patsee Ober