Marine Photographer Jim Watt passes
Aloha, Jim Watt
With those words, words that can mean both hello and farewell, underwater photographer Doug Perrine announced the passing of close friend James Watt.
"Jim passed away this morning, Thursday July 19, in the company of family and friends. Having lost his heroic battle with cancer, he accepted his fate and departed with dignity. He slipped away quickly, but thankfully with little suffering ...His spirit lives on in the many people he was able to inspire, teach, move, and motivate during his too-short time with us."
Born in 1951 in Los Angeles, Jim started scuba diving at 14 and never, ever stopped his love of the sea and scuba. Even as he was undergoing radiation treatment, and he knew he had to stay out of the sun, he was figuring out how to have productive night dives. He sent out occasional messages to some of us he knew were concerned about his fight with cancer, but even those were always interspersed with his adventures in marine photography. Here's a few comments from his December update: "We were able to spend a number of days on the water and were lucky enough to swim with pod of Sperm Whales with Doug Perrine on his boat. Another day and over 20 mantas show up!!!." Then, in his normal understated way he talked about the nuts and bolts of his cancer treatment.
Jim was a mentor and inspiration to all in the underwater photography business today. I met him during the first Digital Shootout in Indonesia in September 2001, even though I knew his photography quite well by then. I remember the date because when we all got off the airplane in Singapore there was an Asian TV crew wanting to interview anyone from the US about the airplanes that just crashed into the Twin Towers in New York. We spent the next 10 days in Manado diving together, thinking about all that was going on back home, but mostly celebrating the time together at sea. I couldn't contribute much of anything relative to digital photo education for our group (I was a film shooter at the time) but Jim was already totally immersed in digital photography and had embarked on his quest to revisit all of the places in the world he'd shot in the analog era and recapture it digitally.
He taught us all about digital "workflow", before most of us even knew what the word meant. He traveled with his archive on his laptop and with an Internet cafe in any remote location, he'd send images to clients worldwide. That in particular used to amuse him. To know he could sell an image to adorn the tail of an Alaskan Airline while watching the sun set in the Maldives.
I know he loved the commerce of stock photography, and was always the first to embrace the new technologies. Yet, with Jim I always felt it was more about a love for the sea and the art of photography. I never knew which came first with him, diving or shooting, yet each fed the other with an unmatched passion.
I never knew a shooter more in love with simply being in the water. He captured his own personal vision of the sea artistically, and with amazing innovation.
It seems all who knew him had a favorite "Jim" story. Masa Ushioda spent a lot of time with Jim in and around the waters of their homes on Kona, Hawaii. Masa reflects:
"I've known Jim ever since I got here in Kona, Hawaii in the summer of 1998. Jim and I were connected immediately through our common interest: diving, fishing, photography, boating, marine life and the love of the ocean. For these nine years in Hawaii, I don't know how many times Jim and I went out on the ocean together. For those who knows me very well perhaps heard me saying I did this and that with Jim or Jim said this and that...again and again...
Sometimes we went out on my boat, but most of the time I went on his boat as his deck hand and bait handler. I hope I was a good boat buddy to Jim. I handled all the stinky baits (he calls it) for him when we go fishing or shark diving. When the water is too chilly for him in the winter, Jim made me jump in the water first to see if whales are friendly enough to photograph or not (although most of the time I was able to get better shots by doing that, he he). One time we fished so many tunas until we broke our rods in half. We had never had a bad time together on the ocean. I only had a good time with him. That's probably because of his great personality. He is always positive, cheerful, funny, and seems to have no downtime with him. Even when nothing happens out on the ocean, we talked for hours about next big adventures, next big gadgets, next good food & drinks...you know all those guy things...
I learned a lot from Jim. He showed me how to get sharks closer to boat, how to fish around Kona, how to approach whales, how to drive a boat in a rough sea, where to dive...I seems to have an endless list of things I learned from him...I will miss him, my friend, mentor, the greatest inspiration of my photography."
Doug Perrine adds the following: "His friend Ronda Allen is hoping to put together a tribute CD and/or book, and is requesting publishable-quality digital image files of pictures of Jim on his various adventures with his friends. You can reach Ronda at [email protected]. If you know someone else whose life was touched by Jim, and might have something to contribute, feel free to pass that address on."
The reality any of us who dive today have been touched by Jim, whether they know it or not. His images are that pervasive and powerful. Those who aspire to excellence in underwater photography will realize that we've lost one of our greatest inspirations. Aloha, Jim.
-- Stephen Frink
The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the Kona Hospital Foundation http://www.khfhawaii.org/.
Aloha, Jim Watt
With those words, words that can mean both hello and farewell, underwater photographer Doug Perrine announced the passing of close friend James Watt.
"Jim passed away this morning, Thursday July 19, in the company of family and friends. Having lost his heroic battle with cancer, he accepted his fate and departed with dignity. He slipped away quickly, but thankfully with little suffering ...His spirit lives on in the many people he was able to inspire, teach, move, and motivate during his too-short time with us."
Born in 1951 in Los Angeles, Jim started scuba diving at 14 and never, ever stopped his love of the sea and scuba. Even as he was undergoing radiation treatment, and he knew he had to stay out of the sun, he was figuring out how to have productive night dives. He sent out occasional messages to some of us he knew were concerned about his fight with cancer, but even those were always interspersed with his adventures in marine photography. Here's a few comments from his December update: "We were able to spend a number of days on the water and were lucky enough to swim with pod of Sperm Whales with Doug Perrine on his boat. Another day and over 20 mantas show up!!!." Then, in his normal understated way he talked about the nuts and bolts of his cancer treatment.
Jim was a mentor and inspiration to all in the underwater photography business today. I met him during the first Digital Shootout in Indonesia in September 2001, even though I knew his photography quite well by then. I remember the date because when we all got off the airplane in Singapore there was an Asian TV crew wanting to interview anyone from the US about the airplanes that just crashed into the Twin Towers in New York. We spent the next 10 days in Manado diving together, thinking about all that was going on back home, but mostly celebrating the time together at sea. I couldn't contribute much of anything relative to digital photo education for our group (I was a film shooter at the time) but Jim was already totally immersed in digital photography and had embarked on his quest to revisit all of the places in the world he'd shot in the analog era and recapture it digitally.
He taught us all about digital "workflow", before most of us even knew what the word meant. He traveled with his archive on his laptop and with an Internet cafe in any remote location, he'd send images to clients worldwide. That in particular used to amuse him. To know he could sell an image to adorn the tail of an Alaskan Airline while watching the sun set in the Maldives.
I know he loved the commerce of stock photography, and was always the first to embrace the new technologies. Yet, with Jim I always felt it was more about a love for the sea and the art of photography. I never knew which came first with him, diving or shooting, yet each fed the other with an unmatched passion.
I never knew a shooter more in love with simply being in the water. He captured his own personal vision of the sea artistically, and with amazing innovation.
It seems all who knew him had a favorite "Jim" story. Masa Ushioda spent a lot of time with Jim in and around the waters of their homes on Kona, Hawaii. Masa reflects:
"I've known Jim ever since I got here in Kona, Hawaii in the summer of 1998. Jim and I were connected immediately through our common interest: diving, fishing, photography, boating, marine life and the love of the ocean. For these nine years in Hawaii, I don't know how many times Jim and I went out on the ocean together. For those who knows me very well perhaps heard me saying I did this and that with Jim or Jim said this and that...again and again...
Sometimes we went out on my boat, but most of the time I went on his boat as his deck hand and bait handler. I hope I was a good boat buddy to Jim. I handled all the stinky baits (he calls it) for him when we go fishing or shark diving. When the water is too chilly for him in the winter, Jim made me jump in the water first to see if whales are friendly enough to photograph or not (although most of the time I was able to get better shots by doing that, he he). One time we fished so many tunas until we broke our rods in half. We had never had a bad time together on the ocean. I only had a good time with him. That's probably because of his great personality. He is always positive, cheerful, funny, and seems to have no downtime with him. Even when nothing happens out on the ocean, we talked for hours about next big adventures, next big gadgets, next good food & drinks...you know all those guy things...
I learned a lot from Jim. He showed me how to get sharks closer to boat, how to fish around Kona, how to approach whales, how to drive a boat in a rough sea, where to dive...I seems to have an endless list of things I learned from him...I will miss him, my friend, mentor, the greatest inspiration of my photography."
Doug Perrine adds the following: "His friend Ronda Allen is hoping to put together a tribute CD and/or book, and is requesting publishable-quality digital image files of pictures of Jim on his various adventures with his friends. You can reach Ronda at [email protected]. If you know someone else whose life was touched by Jim, and might have something to contribute, feel free to pass that address on."
The reality any of us who dive today have been touched by Jim, whether they know it or not. His images are that pervasive and powerful. Those who aspire to excellence in underwater photography will realize that we've lost one of our greatest inspirations. Aloha, Jim.
-- Stephen Frink
The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the Kona Hospital Foundation http://www.khfhawaii.org/.
