Hi, I'm Andy Schmid

I grew up landlocked close to Zurich, Switzerland and didn’t have any connection to the ocean and its inhabitants until my mid twenties. It was on a trip to Mexico in 2003 when I got really fascinated by the ocean and started diving. I immediately fell in love with everything about it and have become passionate about it ever since.

Only after a few years when I had gone through a number of dive courses and had logged roughly 200 dives I picked up a Canon point and shoot camera as my first underwater camera and learned about underwater photography step by step, steadily improving my skills and equipment. Over the years I went through a number of different Canon point and shoot cameras until I felt like I had come to the limit of what could be done with them. That’s when I switched to a Canon DSLR.

Although underwater photography has become my absolute passion, I’m still an underwater lover first and I don’t mind getting in the water and exploring what lies beneath the surface without a camera. Nowadays I also do a lot of snorkeling/freediving activities where less gear is needed and other wildlife encounters are possible, especially offshore where large pelagic mammals can potentially be seen such as whales and dolphins that have to come to the surface every now and then to breathe.

Depending on where my travels take me I shoot anything from the smallest ocean creatures such as pygmy seahorses and nudibranchs to the biggest ocean inhabitants such as whales and sharks. I find that wherever I go, there is always something special and unique to a place and so I try focussing on capturing that.

Over the past few years I have been lucky enough to win a number of international photography awards and have had my photos published in various international exhibitions, books and magazines. By capturing our planet's hidden treasures I'm trying to create awareness for what's at stake if we keep treating our planet the way we have been for the past decades and inspire a positive change.

I hope you enjoy the imagery you can find on my website or on my social channels. If you would like to have any of my work printed, collaborate with me or have any other question please shoot me an e-mail.

Visit my Instagram or Facebook for regular updates. And if you want to find out what's inside my camera bag, have a look at my feature on shotkit.com.

When I'm not travelling or diving I manage digital projects for a living.

Thank you for visiting my website and happy bubbles ° o O o ° °°