Nicole D'Amore / Special to The Star Dan Harding makes semi-underwater housings for his cameras.

As a photographer and marine biologist, Dan Harding captured beautiful landscapes as well as stunning underwater images. But to show how they related to each other, he came up with the idea of building camera housings that would enable him to take pictures of both areas simultaneously.

Full underwater cameras are made for diving or snorkeling, and you only get pictures of what's under water, Harding said.

"I thought, is there something I could do under water that is a little different — photograph unusual places where you don't have to do snorkeling?" he said.

Sometimes the most interesting things are right below the surface.

"Snorkeling in six inches of water in Santa Paula Creek in a wetsuit using an underwater camera — I thought there has to be a better way," Harding said with a laugh.

Although he built his first underwater camera housing when he was still in high school, it wasn't until he retired from a long teaching career that he was able to devote much time to capturing these unique images.

Last summer, Harding and his wife, Sue, traveled 8,000 miles across the United States hitting all the national parks.

"My pursuit is finding areas that have special views under and above water," the Santa Paula native said. "And you can't beat a glacial stream."

Capturing the full scene

His photographs capture the majesty of a mountain range and stream, but the bottom portion of the picture offers a fish-eye view of the underwater scene as well. Rocks hit by sunlight reflect bright colors as rainbow-colored fish swim by. In some pictures, a layer of blue ice cuts across, separating the two scenes.

Against the background of the Casino in Avalon on Catalina Island, colorful jellyfish float in the water, their bodies echoing the curved shape of the building. At a fish hatchery in the Sierras, you can see trout in the water and jumping out of it. "You can't disturb their environment," he said. "You just lean over and take the picture."

Although in this day of photo enhancement it's not unusual to see combined images from several photographs, Harding is quick to point out that's not how he does it.

"It's all authentic," he said. "Everything you see is what I saw. It's my nemesis because Photoshop is out there," he said. "It's been difficult for me to convince people that I am looking for natural things that actually exist, not creating things."

He uses a Canon 5D digital camera, but he waits until evening to examine the details of the photos he shot during the day. When he didn't like the images he took at Glacier National Park, they drove 500 miles out of the way to revisit the site. He waited four or five hours for the sun to come out, but "Water Window," one of his premier photos, was the result.

It can be cold and dangerous work, a misstep on a slippery rock a real possibility.

"I have damaged equipment and myself," he said. "Sometimes you don't know if the next step is knee deep or over your head."

Started out in Santa Paula

Harding was always fascinated with water, but his interest in photography began at Santa Paula High School, where he took pictures for the school newspaper and yearbook

"With an interest in photography, taking it underwater was just a natural progression," he said.

He majored in biology and oceanography at San Diego State University, got married and taught in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. They returned to California after their two children were born, and he taught at Nordhoff High School in Ojai until he retired three years ago.

"It wasn't until I retired that I was able to focus on new ideas for photography," he said. He estimates he has made two or three dozen camera housings, typically consisting of a plexiglass box open at the top. He uses a 90-degree angle finder on camera.

"In one sense it's very simple," he said. "Making it as compact as possible, being able to get to the controls and not flood the camera took a lot of trial and error."

Next on Harding's list is a series on Coastal California, and then he and his wife plan an extended trip through the Hawaiian Islands chain.

Harding's photographs are on the covers of three magazines this month. They can be seen at the Ventura Visitor's Center and Island Packers in the Ventura Marina and at the Ojai Art Center through mid-July. His Web site is http://www.pacificimages.biz.

— To recommend an artist to be profiled in this section, contact Nicole D'Amore at ArtProfiles@roadrunner.com or 405-0364.