Ambassador of the Month – David Girsh

In this new section in our blog, we will feature our amazing Mozaik ambassadors so that you can get to know them better and learn about their fascinating lives.

The ambassador of this month is David Girsh!

David, tell us a bit about how you became a diver and UW photographer?

Since I was just a kid, spending time at the beach ( or anywhere near the ocean ) was / is my favorite thing to do! At the age of 15, I became a certified diver and very quickly climbed the certification ladder of scuba, being qualified as an Instructor at the age of 21. Soon after, I left my home country – Israel, and started travelling the world, diving and living in some of the most amazing destinations on earth! Ranging from the cold waters of New Zealand and South Australia to the warm Caribbeans and the South Pacific Islands.

Photography has always been one of my greatest passions, above and below the water. In the past 2 years I’ve been putting a strong emphasis on filming, working with NGO’s around Australia and the South Pacific region.

Capturing the underwater world enables people who are not familiar with it to fall in love instantly, and I believe this is a very strong tool to make a difference in protecting the oceans.

Today, my main focus is filming and photography, teaching various dive courses, leading dive trips around the world and spreading the message for ocean conservation!

What’s your most memorable dive?

Well, my biggest passion is interacting with big animals, especially marine mammals. There’s just something humbling about being in the presence of an animal that is so much stronger and larger than you, that can do whatever they want to you in a split second and you have no control, all you can do is just let go and embrace for the ride haha. When swimming with big animals you’re freediving usually or just snorkeling on the surface and I must say that my strongest experience in the water was in Tonga last October, when we found 11 whales in a heat run cruising in clear deep blue water! It’s just something you can’t put into words…
When you have 11 fifty ton animals coming straight at you, checking you out and letting you in on the action, you realize you are in the wildest situation you’ll ever experience. Intercepting these giants on their wild behavior in the middle of the pacific ocean with nothing around you is just as alive as you can possibly be…

Favorite photo that you took?

To me, a good photograph would be the capture of a behaviour. That’s what makes a photo powerful I think, catches people’s attention. A true connection between you and the animal or the animal with other animals, where you feel you’re whitensing it in the most natural possible way. As if it doesn’t matter if you are there or not, this moment will happen in time, and you are just there able to click that shutter in the right moment. I’ve been planning to catch this shot for many years, that eye contact you get when interacting with marine mammals, a curiosity that goes both ways. In this shot you have a baby humpback whale, about a month old, it was coming to play with us in between breathing and hanging out with mom who was sleeping 15M below…

Which gear do you currently use?

I’m shooting with Panasonic GH5 with Nimar housing, usually in natural light and mostly with my 7-14mm lumix lens.

How can we follow your work and get in touch?

You can mainly find my work on Instagram and get in touch @davidgirsh, order prints and just follow my conservation work. Also I have a youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi4DPpDAPOo&t=1s . I’m working on a website so stay tuned!

Your Message to the World

We can all make changes within our own small world and this way make a difference in the bigger world. Lead by example, don’t pay attention to what others think of what you do, just keep doing that and they will follow!