Romain Barats

Romain works as a doctor by day and has loved the ocean since he was a child. 

The Stingray moves like a vacuum cleaner while Black Tip Reef Sharks move through the background. This photo was ranked in various  categories of the 2018 Paris diving fair contest, and in the category up & coming of the contest underwater photographer of the year 2018. (Romain Barats)

The mako shark in mid-water / mid-air. This super predator can hunt very fast fish such as tuna or sailfish.
​ Photo taken off Cabo San Lucas in Mexico (Romain Barats)

background info

I’m a French doctor in radiology born in Oloron Sainte Marie in France and I grew with Cousteau’s stories. I love to dive of course, that I did in a lot of places (Red Sea, South Africa, Polynesia, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Hawaï...) and am rebreather diver (air diluent); I began underwater photography 3 years ago with a compact canon then switched to a Nikon D750. I try to immortalise beautiful events underwater, specially about whales. My dream is to write a book for education illustrated with my shots.

Media are omnipresent, everytime and everywhere, especially images and videos, as we can see on Instagram, Facebook etc. With the powerful actual cameras, a 4K video or a shot are far more popular than a written book without image, for example a picture showing the Faroé island people slaughtering pilot whales in a bloody sea, with happy kids playing with dead dolphins shock us more than a simple line in a newspaper saying that 200 pilot whales were murdered.

So in my mind media must have 2 purposes : 

1. To show the beauty of our oceans.
2. To inform the public about human negative impact everywhere in the world.

Sperm Whales sleep vertically, stabilised by the spermaceti contained in their head. Here we can see them sleeping, motionless and vertical, stabilized by the spermaceti contained in their head. They usually sleep 30-45 mins in a row Females and young live in groups in tropical waters while males frequent cold waters and join females for breeding. 
​(Romain Barats) 

Photogrpahy/Film
​

So far i've only got photography showing the beauty of underwater wildlife, my friends (most of them don’t know anything about oceans and marine wildlife) are really interested when I post a new photo and ask me a lot of questions, and somebody interested in something become more or less concerned. It helps me to follow my photo work. For photography equipment I’ve got a NikonD750 with a 14-24 for wide angle, a 16-85, and a 105macro. my housing is a Nauticam one, and I’ve got 2 inon strobes. For video I have a Red Epic-W caméra with a canon 11-24mm, a Nauticam housing and 2 lights Keldan 13000lux. ​

​I have a lot of projects and will work on each one but I have to manage with my work too as a doctor. Here are a few things I want to do: 

1. I want to write a book with my shots for education as children are the future and it’s essential to educate the new generation.
2. I will try to get more and more underwater action, shots and videos.
3. I’d love to photograph the negative human impact on wildlife but I need more time to do that.
​

Male sperm whales can measure up to 18m. They have been massively exterminated by man for several centuries, especially for their oil. They live with their families and are apnea champions, up to several hundred meters deep. They are very social and communicate with each other by series of "clicks", forming a sort of language, different depending on the groups of sperm whales. The clicks are also used to hunt because they are able to knock out prey, such as a squid, using a "mega click" then swallow at once. (Romain Barats)

The whale shark moves at 5km/hour and can live more than 100 years. (Romain Barats) 

Beware of the cooups of tail during his passage! The whale shark is still being hunted to be consumed in South Asia, including Taiwan. It is regularly accompanied by fish.

​You can find out more information about Romain Barat's work here: 

Website    Instagram    Facebook
​