Hot Shots Gallery - A selection of our very favourite images.

New Images Added - A month by month listing of new images added to the site.

Recent Publications - A sample of some recent Publications we have worked on.

The Great Barrier Reef - Introduction to the Great Barrier Reef

• August 08: More fantastic Steve Parish Fact File books due to be released containing many of our images. A complete index page of the SPP publications will be added soon. We have been adding fantastic shots from the cooler regions of the world over the last few months along with African animals and rare and endangered creatures. Many new species have now been added to our online database with many more to come. Some of the species include Walrus, Bowhead Whale, Elephant Seal, Leopard Seal, Bearded Seal, Guadalupe Fur Seal, South American Fur Seal and the rare and near extinct Yantze River Dolphin. Also many birds and penguins including the amjestic King Penguin along with images of their pristine and spectacular environment on the iceburgs of the antarctic. Visit our monthly new page to have a look at the new images added.
  
  
• May 08: More Images listed this month: Bottlenose Dolphins leaping and swimming fast, Ocean Sunfish, Blue Whales, Fin Whale, Grey Whale detail, Short-finned Pilot Whales, Sperm Whale, Grey Whales underwater, Humpback Whale fluking, Mobula Rays, California Sea Lions, Elephant Seal, and Long-beaked Common Dolphin, Beach Worms, Osprey in flight,
  
  
• April 08: Images listed this month: Silvertip Shark, Bull Shark feeding, Blacktip Reef Shark, Grey Nurse Shark or Sand Tiger Shark, Grey Reef Shark, Blue Whale, Southern Right Whales, Humpback Whales - underwater and breaching, Fin Whale, Grey Whale detail, Short-finned Pilot Whale, Sperm Whale, Pacific Pink Salmon, Rare white colour phase Spirit Bear, Manatees, Guadalupe Fur Seal, Elephant Seal, Steller's Sea Lion, Titan Triggerfish in Courtship display, Schooling Fish, the rare and endangered Goliath Grouper, Sailfin Grouper, Pacific White-sided Dolphin and Short-beaked Common Dolphin.
  
  
• 2008 - New images listed Humpack Whales breaching, Australian Koalas. Mark Carwardine joins our growing family of contributing photographers. We have now listed some of his fabulous images of rare and endangered creatures including Great White Sharks, Amazon River Dolphin, Nile Crocodile, Red-eyed Green tree frogs, Argentine Horned Frog, Reed Frog, Cagle's Reed Frog, Golden Gliding Frog, Sedge Frog, Couch's Spadefoot Toad, Aldabra Giant Tortoise, Green Anaconda, Cottonmouth Snake, White-lipped Tree Viper, Gaboon Viper, Standing's Day Gecko, Meller's Giant Chameleon, Plumed Basilisk, Madagascan Leaf-tailed Gecko, New Caledonia Crested Gecko, Monkey-tail Skink, Green Python, Javan Langur, Asiatic Lion, Western Lowland Gorilla, Aye Aye Lemur , Long-tailed Macaques, Livingstone's Fruit Bat, Red Panda, Sand Cat, Desert Black Rhino, Turkish Spiny Mouse and the Red-ruffed Lemur.
  
  
• November 07: Amazing new Shark and Turtle images added to our online database, along with images of underwater volcanic vents extruding gases. Recently, photographer Michael Patrick O'Neill joined our growing list of contributing photographers. Michael has travelled the world extensively and has won many photographic awards for his wildlife photos. Some of the new images of his are the rare and endangered Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle, Leatherback Turtle, Scalloped Hammerhead Shark, Bull Sharks and Great White Sharks. Also new shark and ray images added from Andy Murch including the Porbeagle Shark, Angelshark, Blue Shark, Mako Sharks, Catshark, Electric Shark, Stingarees, Skates, Guitarfish and Stingrays.
  
  
• September 2007 Launch of our new-look website with enhanced features...
  We have just launched our new-look website with enhanced features. Please take a look around and let us know what you think If you have any comments or suggestions, don't hesitate to let us know. We hope you enjoy it. We will continue to add new images to our online image database as soon as possible and have many new images to add. Images from a Gary Bell recent assignment to photograph Humpback Whales underwater and a trip to Indonesia will be listed soon along with a huge collection ready to be catalogued. We have thousands of images yet to be added so please contact us if you cannot find the image you are looking for.
  
  
• July 07: Giant Cuttlefish from the Solitary Islands, New South Wales caught on film by Gary Bell. Images added include rivalling males and mating male and female. These Cuttlefish are around 1 metre in length and display an amazing array of colours when in defence mode or trying to blend in with their surrounds. Also added this month are new images of Black Marlin breaching on the surface, the beautiful Southern Blue Devilfish, the rare Short Boarfish, Southern Blue-ringed Octopus with eggs, Southern Sand Octopus and Luminous Bay Squid.
  
  
• June 2007 image additions to the online database include images from the Solitary Islands in Coffs Harbour - Big-eye Trevally predating on a school of Slender Cardinalfish, Spotted Wobbegong Shark surrounded by Slender Cardinalfish and Coffin Rays. Also the rare Australian Tree-kangaroo - Lumholtz's Tree-kangaroo which lives in the Cape York Peninsula and is rarely spotted, the Northern Nailtail Wallaby and Saltwater Crocodile. Australian birds including Pied Imperial-pigeon, Wompoo Fruit-Dove, Emerald Dove, Eclectus Parrots male and female mating, Orange-footed Scrubfowl, Fig Bird, Yellow Oriole, Black swan with chicks, Black-necked Stork, Pied Heron, Yellow-billed Spoonbill, Wandering Whistling-ducks. Beautiful Australian Butterflies including the Orange Lacewing Butterfly, Australian Rustic Butterfly, Ulysses Butterfly, Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly, Grass-yellow butterfly, Cairns Birdwing Butterfly, Orange Lacewing Butterfly mating and detail of wings, Lemon Migrant Butterfly and the Yellow Admiral Butterfly.
  
  
• May 07: Some of the new images added to our online database in May include amazing Chris & Monique Fallows images of Breaching and attacking Great White Sharks, Oceanic Whitetip Shark, Silky Sharks & Silvertip Sharks. Also great Gary Bell images of Australian Praying mantis, the deadly Sydney Funnel-web spider in defence posture, Net-casting Spider with Net ready to capture prey, the largest known stick insect in Australia -the Titan Stick Insect and other stick insects.
  
  
• Exciting April 2007 Book Release:
  THE GREAT BARRIER REEF - World Heritage Marine Park deluxe coffee table book - A global masterpiece! Be enchanted…. by the story of the planet’s largest World Heritage Area, told through the lens and words of two talented professionals. Gary Bell, the photographer, is one of few visual artists to have mastered the art of underwater photography in such a way that the two-dimensional images appear to draw you in and drag you under, immersing you in a miraculous submarine world. When one looks beyond the beauty of the animals and begins to ask questions about their lifestyles — the scientific observations of Dr Tony Ayling leap to the fore. Tony has been passionate about sea creatures since childhood, and over the past 25 years he has dived extensively and researched the Great Barrier Reef in its entirety. Click here for more info about this book. Click Here to buy this book directly from the Steve Parish Publishing website.
  Photography: Gary Bell.
  Text: Dr Tony Ayling.
  Publisher: Steve Parish Publishing.
  
  
• February 2007 - Great new Shark images from Photographer Andy Murch! Tiger Shark, Great White Shark underwater, Whale Shark, Blue Shark, Mako Shark, Sandtiger Shark, Silky Shark, Carribean Reef Shark, Lemon Shark, Sandbar Shark, Green Sawfish.
  
  
January 2007 - More of Australia's deadly and dangerous snakes now added to our image database: The Fierce Snake (or Inland Taipan) known for it's agressive behaviour, Mulga Snake (or King Brown Snake) and Collett's Snake. Other Australian fauna including the pest toad species of Australia, Cane Toad, introduced into North Queensland originally to control and combat the Sugar Cane Beetle, the friendly Water Dragon, the termite eating Short-beaked Echidna and also the wonderful Grey-headed Flying-fox or Fruit Bat. A great selection of Cloud and Sky images have also formed a new category on our category tree - alwasy useful for backgrounds in a variety of projects. Other images include the Arrow Squid, Barracouta and Black marlin images.


• November 2006 - More of Australia's fascinating and dangerous Australian Snakes and Lizards have now been added, including the venmous and dangerous Rough-scaled snake, non-venomous Diamond Python and Green Tree Snake, the Central Bearded Dragon, Water Dragon, Frilled Lizard, Lace Monitor & Leaf-tailed Gecko which is such a master of disguise that it is difficult to spot.



• November06 The new 2007 Great Barrier Reef calendar featuring Gary Bell's spectacular imagery is now released in Australia. Check your favourite Australian newsagency soon for this wonderful calendar published by David Messent Publishing.
  
  
• October 2006 - Photographer Gary Bell has recently returned from a photographic assignment photographing the magnificent Humpback Whale underwater. Visit the categories Humpback Whale - underwater and Humpback Whale - breaching, to view his recent images of this incredible animal.
• August 06: Some of Australia's fascinating and dangerous Australian Snakes have now been added, including the Taipan, Tiger Snake, Death Adder, Eastern Brown Snake and Red-bellied Black Snake - along with pics of 2 rivalling males. More dangerous snakes to be added in the following weeks. The non-venomous Spotted Python has also been added. More dangerous Australian snakes to be added very soon. New Australian Platypus images also added.
  
  
• July 06: Tiger Sharks, Hammerhead Sharks, Queensland Giant Groupers, Snappers, Whaler sharks: Blacktip Reef Shark, Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat, Chimaera: Spotted Ratfish

• 08 June 06: Basking Sharks, Lemon Shark, Horn Shark, Wobbegongs: Tassled Wobbegong and Cobbler Wobbegong, Rays: Cowtail Stingray, Black Stingray, Jenkins Whipray, Blue-spotted Fantail Ray, Eagle Ray and Shark Ray

• 2 June 06: New images added, Sea Pens. Many new tropical fish species added to the 'more tropical fish' category - Royal Dottyback, Variegated Lizardfish, Big-nose Unicaornifsh, Scribbled leatherjacket, Ring-tailed Cardinalfish brooding eggs in mouth, Yellow boxfish, Pajama Cardinalfish, Sptted Boxfish, Pufferfish, the extremely colourful Mandarinfish, Glasseye, Longtom and Blue-lined Sabretooth Blenny.

• 30 May 06: New images added, Olive Sea Snakes and Gobies: Colourful Red Fire Goby, Purple Fire Goby and Seawhip Goby, Lionfish, Schooling Goatfish, Crinoid spawning, Mangroves, Olive Sea Snakes, Silvertip Shark, Green turtles, and Exploring Reef flat at Sunset.

• 25 May 06: New category added, Groupers and Cods listing new images of Potato Grouper, White-edged Lyretail Cod, Coronation Trout, Coral Trout, and Footballer Trout. New category: Fairy Basslets with new Fairy Basslet images added. New Category: Parrotfish with the following new images added: Humphead parrotfish, Blunt-headed Parrotfish and coral showing bite marks.

• 24 May 06: New category added, Wrasses, with the following new images added - Sunset Wrasse, Scarlet-breasted Maori Wrasse, huge Napolean Wrasse and Harlequin Tuskfish. New Marine Design images added showing Parrotfish fin and scale detail, also close up images of Cod fish eyes and red goatfish scale detail.

• 28/04/06 Kelps and Algaes added. One of the fastest growing plants in the world (comparable to bamboo) is Giant Kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) of Southern Australia. We have added images to our database of close up detail of the Giant kelp and also other algaes and grasses which often get overlooked but are very important to the reef system.

• 29/03/06 We have sub-categorized the Whaler Sharks to make it easier to find the many different types of Whaler Sharks and have also added some new shark images to the following Whaler Shark categories: Whitetip Reef Shark, Blacktip Reef Shark, Galapagos Shark, Grey Reef Shark. We have also added a Shark Ray category and added new images in this category.

• 23/03/06 New Dusky sharks added. Bullsharks are possibly the most dangerous tropical shark - especially as they often reside in rivers and canals where people frequently swim. They are known to have caused several deaths and attacks.

• 08/03/06 Added to our database: More of the Scorpionfish family, including the highly venomous Stonefish and non-venomous False Stonefish, Zebra Lionfish and Twin-spot Lionfish and the exquisite Lacy Scorpionfish and Leaf Scorpionfish.
  

• 31/01/06 New Seahorse and Pipefish added including the spectacular Harlequin Ghost Pipefish and Pygmy Seahorse.

• 13/01/06 Added to our database: Triggerfish: Clown Triggerfish, Half-moon Triggerfish, Orange-lined Triggerfish, Blue Triggerfish, Aggressive Titan Triggerfish aerating eggs, Yellow-margin Triggerfish aerating eggs.
  

• 11/01/06 More Tropical Fish added: Angelfish, including Yellowmask Angelfish, Caribbean Angelfish, Emperor Angelfish, Regal Angelfish, Blue-girdled Angelfish, Blue-ringed Angelfish, Three-spot Angelfish, Blue Angelfish and the Scribbled Angelfish.

• 6/01/06 Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!
  We are continuing to add new images from recent field trips. Todays additions include colourful tropical Butterflyfish and Coral Fish.
  

• 6/12/05 Images of Australian Pelicans feeding and flocked together now added to our website. Click the link to view or visit the images via our category tree on the left. Category: Terrestrial, Australian Birds, Pelicans...

• 1/12/05 New Invertebrate images added: hydroids, marine worms, sea anemones, sea cucumbers, sea urchins. Also Corals: fire coral and lace coral.

• 24/11/05 Stunning underwater images of Bottlenose dolphins - mother and baby, and family group. Bottlenose dolphins are found largely in coastal waters and live for around 30 years.The calves suckle for up to 18 months. Bottlenose Dolphins live in fairly open groups and commonly associate with other dolphin species - sometimes they may interbreed. They are particularly friendly and generally love interacting with humans.

• 17/11/05 Dangerous Spiders added: Deadly Funnel-web, White-tailed Sac Spider and Mouse Spider.

4/11/2005 Humpback Whales from a recent Gary Bell Shoot. Single breaches, Mother and Calf breaching, tail flukes, pectoral fin slapping, detail of underside of belly, etc. Have a look!.

• 28/09/05 Great new images of : Billfish: Black Marlin, Blue Marlin and Sailfish breaching out of the water.

• 6/09/2005 Invertebrates: Crinoids and Featherstars. We have still to add more hydroids, marine worms, sea anemones, sea cucumbers and sea urchins. Please contact us if you would like to see the low res files of these.
  
  
  

• 18/08/05 The new 2006 Great Barrier Reef calendar featuring Gary Bell's spectacular imagery will soon be released in Australia. Check your favourite newsagency soon for this wonderful calendar published by David Messent Publishing.

• 17/08/05 We have now completed further updates to our website to make it even more user-friendly. Pricing an image is as simple as clicking the icon under an image and filling out our licensing form. You can also now order prints directly from the large image pop-up. If you have any further suggestions relating to our website, please email us.

• 2/08/05 Many more colourful Ascidians (Tunicates or Sea Squirts) have now been added to our website. These underwater filter feeders will amaze you with their colours.

• 15/7/05 We have sub-categorized our Invertebrate category section to make it alot easier to find the image you are after and will be adding new images to each section in the coming weeks. We have started with the sub-categories Starfish and Sea Stars. Please click the links to view new images.
  New images added can also be found in the Clownfish, Freshwater Crayfish, Lobsters and Shrimps