It’s hard not to call a balloonfish adorable. If you really look at the balloonfish, it feels like a made-up fish, something an artistic child would imagine.
They are real and sometimes if you get the right angle they look like they have a friendly smile. You don’t have to go diving to see this cute little fella; all you have to do is look at the 50th anniversary stamp celebrating the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The person who made that lovely shot is local photographer Daryl Duda.
Duda’s photography introduces us to an underwater world without ever having to go in the water. It may also inspire you to want to strap on your dive gear and go looking for these little sea creatures.
Duda has had quite the journey. A photograph is taken in an instant, but it is the lifetime of experience and the preparation and knowledge that make it a work of art. He started out with a degree in earth science and a major in meteorology. After college, he was a musician and taught himself audio engineering. His musical skills would be showcased in Ron Howard’s first film, “Night Shift,” for which he and a friend co-wrote a country song. Yes, the Ron Howard.
He worked with an arts group, Horses Inc.
“We made independent films and did some interesting performance art on the streets of Chicago back in the day,” Duda said.
He got a job at a small TV station, where he was taught how to work every position. This led him to editing and film crew screening in Chicago, during a time when many now-classic motion pictures were made in Chicago, including “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Home Alone,” “The Untouchables” and “Color of Money.” Duda learned about image composition, which would help him later in his photography career from projecting dailies for the likes of Martin Scorsese and Brian DePalma. After 20 years, Duda retired from being a videotape operator on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
He would move from Chicago and look to mark a new beginning.
“I searched all over the Caribbean for years and found that the Florida Keys would be the best island destination for me with so many organizations like Reef.org surveying fish and coral restoration groups to volunteer with and the History of Diving Museum and still be relatively close to the mainland, family and old friends,” he said.
Duda has always been fascinated with creating interesting images. This fascination was further fueled by the underwater world. While scuba diving, he realized he wanted to share this world and document it through photography.
“There is an endless amount of subject matter to work with and every dive is different; you never know what you might encounter. It is absolutely exhilarating,” he said.
Duda prefers reef and wall diving in the Keys and the Caribbean. Lately, he’s been traveling out to the South Pacific, venturing to Fiji and French Polynesia. His next trip will include Tonga and Cook Islands.
It was on a bright and sunny day at Molasses Reef where Duda took his favorite photo.
“I saw these two beautiful Atlantic spadefish at about 20 feet in the water column at Molasses Reef on a bright sunny day and the way the light reflected off their silvery bodies with the blue background just knocked my socks off,” he said.
He advises anyone getting into photography to just start taking pictures. Do this with your phone or a camera. “Put pictures next to each other and see how they look together,” he said. “Try to find a theme that maybe you want to try for a while. I just met a young photographer who loves to look for ‘faces’ in clouds, in the forest, in nature and she also likes to shoot cars because they are always interesting with a distinct character and each one has a sort of face. Take a photo class or join a photo club.”
Duda’s whole life was working with images and now photography. He uses what he learned during his time in the movies and television to help create his unique images. This distinct vision helped him get that balloonfish on a U.S. stamp. That was only one stop in his adventure.
“Well, I just want to keep wet and find yet another amazing image in the sea. You never know what you’re gonna find,” he said.
Duda’s photography can be found at Our Place In Paradise Gallery, 88711 Overseas Highway on Plantation Key and online at daryl-duda.pixels.com.
