{"id":244416,"date":"2011-07-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/glimpses-of-san-diegos-underwater-wilderness\/"},"modified":"2011-07-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-11T07:00:00","slug":"glimpses-of-san-diegos-underwater-wilderness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/glimpses-of-san-diegos-underwater-wilderness\/","title":{"rendered":"Glimpses of San Diego\u2019s underwater wilderness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Glimpses<\/a>
Blue sharks can be found 30 feet below the surface, where Matthews photographs them in motion. (Courtesy of Neal Matthews)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Exhibit at Sea Rocket Bistro features local underwater photographer Neal Matthews<\/p>\n

By Elena Buckley |<\/strong> Reportero SDUN<\/p>\n

Since 1972, local underwater photographer and journalist Neal Matthews has been taking spectacular underwater pictures, exposing the stunning colors, exotic animals and magnificent plant life of San Diego\u2019s underwater world.<\/p>\n

His latest collection, an exhibit of 13 watery wonders, titled \u201cHome Waters: A San Diego Life Aquatic,\u201d is currently on display in the front room at Sea Rocket Bistro, 3382 30th St., where it will continue to awe viewers until the end of July.<\/p>\n

The show, said Matthews, \u201ccame out of nowhere. These had always kind of been private treasures of mine. I never even considered having a show.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when Elena Rivellino, the owner and general manager at Sea Rocket Bistro saw them, she proposed acting as curator for an exhibit, hand picking a selection of Matthews\u2019 work based on which subjects\u2014including humans, plants and sea life\u2014would accent Sea Rocket\u2019s d\u00e9cor and menu.<\/p>\n

Matthews, who lives in North Park, was a Navy diver and survival instructor in San Diego when he began his underwater photography career. Since then he\u2019s gone on to explore oceans around the world, and both his photography and writing have been published in numerous publications including Travel Holiday, The Union Tribune, The Reader, Boating and more. Matthews was also a former contributing editor for Travel Holiday, Boating and Popular Photography.<\/p>\n

He took photos in Sea Rocket\u2019s exhibit taken in waters all over San Diego, including La Jolla, San Clemente\u00a0and even the Balboa Park Lily Pond and Japanese Friendship Garden, where instead of diving Matthews held his underwater camera just below the surface. Some photos are difficult to obtain close-up shots, while he took others from a cage, just inches from sharks roaming 30 feet below the surface.<\/p>\n

Most of the shots are close to the surface, nearer to natural light and life-rich kelp beds, although Matthews took some photos 100 feet below the surface, where he explored the shipwreck off of San Clemente.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that [this exhibit] shows is that wildlife is so close to us and such a big part of San Diego,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cIt kind of binds us in a way. You know, three kicks off the beach and one kick down and you\u2019re in wilderness. I like people to remember that.\u201d Matthews explained that although he tries to sharpen the photos in the editing process, he mostly likes to work with natural light available under the surface, only resorting to his flash when necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me that makes the underwater world look a little bit phony,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cBecause as a diver, once you leave the surface you start losing color right away. Everything\u2019s basically green, grey after about 20 feet so you don\u2019t see those colors you see in the photographs with the naked eye.\u201d<\/p>\n

The photos span 40 years, showing the changing underwater environments, and capturing \u201congoing moments,\u201d as Matthews put it. He explained that over time, the amount of wildlife in the ocean has changed, \u201cmore or less disappearing.\u201d He said, however, that venturing beneath the surface is still worth the effort in many ways, because it\u2019s still a \u201cwild ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started in \u201972 people told me, \u2018Oh, you should have been here 30 years ago,\u2019\u201d Matthews
\nsaid. \u201cBut at that time it was just electric under the surface, and over the years there\u2019s just been less and less in terms of wildlife. But there\u2019s still a lot there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The photos show a timeline of San Diego\u2019s underwater landscape, and Matthews said that he hopes this exhibit will bring that to those who can\u2019t get beneath the surface themselves, to show them \u201chow much we have and how much it\u2019s worth saving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a weightless environment,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cIt\u2019s totally foreign in that way, and so it\u2019s easy to enter into a totally different world\u2026 .You really don\u2019t have to travel far to find things that are really beautiful.\u201d
\nFor more information, visit nealmatthews.com or searocketbistro.com. Sea Rocket Bistro will host an artist\u2019s reception on July 14, from 6 to 9 p.m. and Karin Grow\u2019s wood-paneled sea creature art to Matthews\u2019 and surfer artist Harry Holiday\u2019s exhibits.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exhibit at Sea Rocket Bistro features local underwater photographer Neal Matthews By Elena Buckley | SDUN Reporter Since 1972, local underwater photographer and journalist Neal Matthews has been taking spectacular underwater pictures, exposing the stunning colors, exotic animals and magnificent plant life of San Diego\u2019s underwater world. His latest collection, an exhibit of 13 watery […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Glimpses of San Diego\u2019s underwater wilderness","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}