About Art Haseltine

Art Haseltine is a marine biologist and fine-art photographer; and has resided in Carmel, California since 1969. He is a fourth-generation native of San Francisco; and holds graduate degrees from Humboldt State University (MA, Biology) and Golden Gate University (MBA, Management). Art worked as a marine biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game for 22 years, and retired in 1991. Most of this career involved basic research with shellfish aquaculture at the department’s Granite Canyon laboratory on the Big Sur coast. Art also served 16 years as an elected Board member of the Carmel Area Wastewater District. Since retirement, Art has pursued his interests of black-and-white photography, scuba diving, travel, and volunteering with environmental and civic organizations. Art became a certified scuba diver in 1962, and began photographing underwater in 1967. He has specialized in b&w underwater photography since 1984. Art's diving and photography take him from the cold (temperate) waters of British Columbia and Alaska, to the warm (tropical) climes of Mexico, the Caribbean, the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific, and the Indian Ocean.

Art's photographic style is influenced both by his training as a diving biologist, and by the fine-art, photographic legacy of California’s Monterey Peninsula. Although his early work was with medium-format cameras and b&w film, Art now uses digital techniques. His subject matter (fish, invertebrate and marine mammal portraits) is from the eye of a marine biologist; but his final product (the fine-art, b&w print) is from the imagination of an artist.

Also, since 2003 Art has pursued the challenge of kite aerial photography (KAP). He suspends a digital camera below a kite which flies at an altitude of about 250 feet. He remains on the ground (or boat), and operates the camera by radio control (RC). Art has flown his KAP rig (kite and camera) from dive boats in Mexico, Fiji, British Columbia and Alaska. Other favorite KAP subjects are lighthouses of Canada, beaches of Mexico, and a variety of subjects on California's central coast.

Art Haseltine currently sits on the Boards of two marine biology groups: The Myers Oceanographic and Marine Biology Trust; and the Monterey Bay Chapter of the American Cetacean Society. Also, Art is active with two underwater photography groups: Monterey Peninsula Underwater Photographers (http://www.mpup1.org), and Northern California Underwater Photographic Society (http://www.ncups.org); and with one fine-art photography group: The ImageMakers of the Monterey Peninsula (http://www.imagemakers.org).

(Winter 2009-2010)