Shark shooter

By Nancy Pleich

Todd Mintz has been on nearly 200 shark-specific dives, his camera lens almost pressed against the snouts of 14- to 16-foot tiger sharks, bulls and great hammerheads. “The sharks are just curious; their killer reputation is exaggerated,” says the 39-year-old CA who is partner at Mintz & Wallace in Regina. “The worst thing that ever happened to me was a little nip at my fin.”

In 1996, two years after earning his diving certificate, Mintz was on his way to a diving trip in the Dutch Antilles and the owner of The Dive Shoppe offered to lend him an underwater camera to try out. That experiment unleashed a great new passion and talent.

Now, armed with two Canon20D digital SLRs protected with Aquatica underwater housing, Mintz explores the oceans of the world scouting out shots that will capture the wonder and beauty below. He has seen Moray eels and boxer crabs; the beautiful nudibranch slug has posed for him. Closer to home in British Columbia, he has focused on humpback whales, sea lions, mosshead warbonnets and giant Pacific octopi.

In 2002, Mintz began to enter photo contests to measure his skill against others and has been winning prizes ever since. A crab put him on a three-week live-aboard diving trip to Indonesia and in September, an anemone(a.k.a. clownfish) earned him the distinction of Highly Honoured Winner in the Oceans category of a Nature’s Best Photography magazine contest. His playful dolphin trio was on the cover of Scuba Diving magazine.

All the galleries on his website — he adds one every time he returns from a trip — are testament to his success ( www.pbase.com/yahsemtough). “The site is named after the first greyhound dog I adopted,” he says. Mintz, who has a dolphin on his business card and has been known to capture a few grizzlies in the frame, is looking forward to adventures in colder climates. “I have my icewater diving certificate too,” he says.

Visitors to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington can see the diving photographer’s work until March 2007.