By Nickolas Evan Acker
Liberal Arts Major

On January 22nd Mauricio Handler gave a presentation in the Jewett Auditorium on his life’s work. Handler, a National Geographic photographer and nature videographer, is known for his work in underwater photography and is one of the top underwater photographers of his time. National Geographic has published five of his images and he was photographed by Brian Skerry while underwater next to a whale; this photograph was published by National Geographic and is one of their most downloaded images. Handler’s first work for National Geographic was in their “3 Degrees of Japan’s Seas”, an underwater photography expedition off the coast of Japan. In 1990 he spent twelve weeks doing wildlife photography in the Galapagos Islands where he is known for his photographs of seals that were starving to death during an El Nino year.
Now Mr. Handler has gone from photography and has begun shooting in “Ultra High Def 4k”. Handler uses Red Digital Cinema’s cameras for this work which enables him to shoot in such high definition. To put this in perspective, Red Digital Cinema designed the cameras used by Peter Jackson for the Hobbit Trilogy which gave Jackson the ability to shoot in such crisp 3D. Without these cameras and the advancement of this technology the level of quality Mr. Handler’s videos has would be impossible.
Mr. Handler showcased five videos at his presentation; some of these videos were published and used by the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance, a partnership of conservation organizations in the Dutch Caribbean Islands. These videos were shot in the ultra high definition described previously and were of such high quality that the processor of the computer showcasing them struggled to process the files playing and the frame rate of the videos suffered at times. Most clips in the videos were underwater shots, although there were some of above water wildlife.
Handler revealed to the audience that he is in Durham, Maine doing a documentary although was vague over the details and it was apparent that the project was still in its infancy stage. To quote Mr. Handler on advice about creating a documentary, “If you want to write about anything, anything creative, don’t think you need to go to Paris or the Galapagos. Draw a 10 mile circle around your house and do a documentary about that. Each home is a story.”