Juan Vega is a dive instructor and self-taught underwater photographer from Cartagena, Colombia. He started diving almost 15 years ago, immediately fell in love with the ocean and decided to make a career out of it.
To make some extra money to travel the world, Juan bought his first underwater compact 7 years ago so he could sell pictures to diving tourists. It soon became more a hobby than a job and the money meant to be spent on travels was instead well invested on a DSLR setup to allow him to share his passion for the ocean through photography.
Any chance he gets Juan will be submerged with his camera hunting down the perfect shot! After years of hard work, his efforts are starting to pay off as his photography has been well received in magazines and on websites.
In September 2013 his work could be seen in both Divestyle and African diver magazines in South Africa, and earlier this year he came in second in the Durban underwater shootout, intermediate category, in South Africa. He has also been recommended by National Geographic's shot of the day.
Juan is passionate about marine protection, and whilst living in Mozambique he actively contributed in conservation activities. He partook in a rescue operation to release about 7 manta rays entangled in numerous fishing nets, and his footage from this rescue along with other documentation of local Manta Ray slaughter can be seen in the documentary Mozambique's ocean guardian which is to be released late 2013 and Stop the demand, an Australian short documentary.
To see Juan's work you can visit:
https://www.facebook.com/juan.v.dive
http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/profile/256521/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MJWIcVPBp4
