David J. Hall is an underwater wildlife photographer, author, and naturalist. His photographs have appeared in hundreds of books, magazines, calendars, and other print media worldwide, including National Geographic, Smithsonian, Natural History, Sierra, Time, Science, Scientific American, Geo, Terre Sauvage, and BBC Wildlife. He is the recipient of many awards, including first place in two categories of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is an annual international wildlife photography competition owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife. Its sponsored name is currently Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year...

, first place in both the Nature's Best and Sierra magazine competitions, and third place in the Festival Mondial de l'Image Sous-Marine. He is also the recipient of an award from the International Institute for Species Exploration, for research leading to his co-authorship of the description of Histiophryne psychedelica, nickmaned the Psychedelic Frogfish

Psychedelic frogfish

The psychedelic frogfish, Histiophryne psychedelica, is a yellow-brown or peach colored frogfish named for its pink and white stripes arranged in a fingerprint pattern. The fish is from the waters near Ambon Island and Bali, Indonesia.-Description:...

 and generally considered to be one of the ten most significant new species described in 2009.

David Hall has written for photographic, scientific, natural history, and diving-oriented publications, and is the author or co-author of ten educational books for children. His most recent book, published in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Germany, is Beneath Cold Seas: The Underwater Wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. Of Beneath Cold Seas, Christopher Newbert (author of the best-selling Within a Rainbowed Sea) has said: “David Hall shoots with the inquiring and exacting eye of a scientist yet the soul and vision of an artist, combining the two to produce uniquely beautiful underwater images that educate as much as they inspire.”

Hall began scuba diving in the 1960s and photographing underwater shortly thereafter. He discovered a love of nature and its inhabitants at an early age, and began photographing marine life primarily as a means to document the species he encountered. What started as a scientific endeavor, however, evolved into an artistic one. He began photographing professionally in 1980 and now sees his work as serving both aesthetic and environmental goals: "It has always been my hope that my fascination with, and respect for, all living things would show in my work and help to inspire similar feelings in others."

Hall has photographed in more than thirty countries or territories, including Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Bahamas, Belize

Belize

Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Cayman Islands

Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica...

, Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

, Dominica

Dominica

Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...

, Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

, Ecuador (Galápagos)

Galápagos Islands

The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a...

, Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, Malaysia, Maldives

Maldives

The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, Micronesia

Micronesia

Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines lie to the west, and Indonesia to the southwest....

, Myanmar

Myanmar

Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

, Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire), New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, Palau

Palau

Palau , officially the Republic of Palau , is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines and south of Tokyo. In 1978, after three decades as being part of the United Nations trusteeship, Palau chose independence instead of becoming part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a...

, Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

, Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, Seychelles

Seychelles

Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....

, Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

, St. Vincent, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, and Vanuatu

Vanuatu

Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...

.

Hall earned a B.S. in Zoology and an M.D., and he practiced for several years as a diagnostic radiologist before retiring from medicine and becoming a full-time wildlife photographer.

David Hall resides in Woodstock, NY with his wife, Gayle Jamison, who is also an award-winning wildlife photographer. He has two children, both of whom are certified scuba divers.

Selected credits

• U.S. Magazines: Audubon, International Wildlife, National Geographic, Natural History, Oceans, Ocean Realm, Omni, Skin Diver, Sierra, Smithsonian, Time.
• International: Airone (Italy), BBC Wildlife (UK), Equinox (Canada), Geo (Germany), Sinra (Japan), Terre Sauvage (France).
• Calendars: Audubon, Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, Inner Reflection.
• Advertising: Discovery Channel, Microsoft, Nature Conservancy, Nikon.