Descending further down into the ocean, seeing the water enclose over the top of your head, is just a taste of what it is like to SCUBA dive.  Being under the ocean in a marine inhabited area is truly breath-taking.  When you’re ninety feet under the water, you forget all the worries and problems that you had on land, and completely check out.  The ocean is one big Zen.

A Hammerhead shark in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

The Galapagos Batfish that hops along the bottom of the ocean

One of the many starfish found in Isla Coiba, Panama

A white tip shark hiding in a cove

Beautiful coral located in Bocas del Toro, Panama

While observing the abundance of natural marine life, you attain this feeling of defying life.  Not only can you be under water taking in the unimaginably, beautiful scenery, you're also taking in oxygen.  This is why I have a passion for underwater photography.  You are showing people one of the most undiscovered, pristine places in the world.  Part of the reason words cannot describe the experiences made when SCUBA diving is because nothing above the water remotely relates.  By photographing the view underwater, you are helping describe what it is like to be under water for such a long period of time.

A sea lion posing for the camera in the Galapagos Islands

Starfish located in the Galapagos Islands

A white tip shark

The Galapagos shark

Las Grietas, Galapagos Islands

Jacque Cousteau, an ocean explorer once said, “When you dive you begin to feel like an angel, your weight is liberated.”  It could not have been said better than that.  In every direction you look, you catch a glimpse of something natural, unseen, and pristine.

sea lion

school of fish

yellow fish

A school of fish in the Galapagos Islands

An eel slithering on the bottom of the ocean

Shelby Lewis is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program.

All photos courtesy and copyright Shelby Lewis