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Nicole Holman | Ocean Storyteller

@nicole.holmann

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💫 Nat Geo Explorer @natgeosociety
🌊 Camera Girl & Expedition Lead
📸 Science, Conservation, Underwater
🤿 Freediver | rEvo CCR
🐋 @sealavieexpeditions

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Earlier in the fall, I had the chance to participate in the REDucation course at @wildscreenorg, thanks to @wildmotiondocs 🙏

It was an incredible opportunity to gain hands-on experience with the @reddigitalcinema cameras and learn about setup, settings, filming, handling and post-production workflow.

Fast forward a few months, and I’m excited to be using @reddigitalcinema in the field on a project with @elena.jean and @marinemegafauna.

Here’s to chasing more dreams as a @wildlife.camerawomen with new skills and great friends! Now to get this thing underwater 🤿

Huge thanks to @wildmotiondocs for making it possible and to @elena.jean and @steve.hendo for letting me use your rigs here in Indo 🙌

📸 @elena.jean

#shotonred #wildlifecamerawoman #oceanconservation #filmproduction taken in Indonesia by @nicole.holmann

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2 years ago

By far the greatest honour of my career, getting to facilitate an audience Q&A with Her Deepness, @dr.sylviaearle at the 20th annual @whaletrustmaui Whale Tales conference, following her brilliant presentation about exploring the deep-sea and its importance to humanity.

Craziest moment might have been having Jean-Michel Cousteau come up on stage and personally thank Sylvia for everything she’s done 😂

I’m so grateful to have been in proximity to her knowledge, wisdom, and relentless advocacy for our ocean and shared planet.

“The deep sea is to be treated for what it is… the secrets of the universe are there. It’s a library.”

Thank you for a lifetime’s worth of inspiration, @dr.sylviaearle 🩵

We all have a role to play in rewriting a thriving story for our oceans. Onwards 🌊 taken in The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua by @nicole.holmann

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7 months ago

A local scientist here in French Polynesia once told me:

“You’re not actually swimming with whales. You’re there observing them.”

He compared it to the theatre. You sit quietly in the audience, put your phone on do not disturb and watch what happens without interfering.

After five years of photographing humpback whales here, I’ve started to realize how much of the experience comes down to mindset. It’s so easy to measure a wild encounter against what we hoped would happen.

Did they come close enough?
Did they look at me?
Did I get the photo I wanted?
Did anything “dramatic” happen?

But the more time I spend around wildlife, the more I’m trying to let go of those expectations and appreciate what actually happens.

We’re not part of the show. We’re in the audience.

And for whatever unfolds, we’re just lucky to be here 🐋 taken in French Polynesia by @nicole.holmann

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24 days ago

August 3rd research log - holy shit!

After spending a few hours along the west coast of the Island surveying and droning grey whales feeding in the area, a recently weaned calf took a real interest in our boat. It came over to check us out and, despite several attempts to move away, just did not want to leave us alone.

This little guy would have been born earlier this year, in January or February, in Baja California Sur, before making the 5,000-7,000 km journey up the west coast with its mom to our chilly waters around Vancouver Island. After only spending 6-8 months together, it would have weaned from her just recently (and apparently used his newfound independence to seek out some new company).

And while our LiDAR altimeter is currently stuck in the mail, having the boat in frame actually makes it possible to measure this calf 😅

In a changing ocean, these animals need all the love, understanding and help they can get. It’s been such a huge privilege to spend this summer on the water with these amazing whales, and hopefully use this drone imagery to add one small piece to the puzzle of understanding what’s happening with them as a population along the west coast.

Wouldn’t want to spend it any other way.

Welcome to the west coast, little calf. Here’s to a new ID in the catalogue 🐋

Filmed with Dr. Jim Darling, drone permit: XMMS 2 2026 taken in Vancouver Island, BC by @nicole.holmann

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a month ago

I wrote this list on my way home, reflecting on some of the lessons that have shaped me before turning 30.

Can’t wait to see what the next decade has in store. I wish I could be mad about the aging process, but each year truly seems to keep getting better and better 💌 by @nicole.holmann

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2 months ago

Okay, who agrees here?

Life, much like being underwater, reveals all the little details when you slow down long enough to appreciate them.

A shrimp hiding in an anemone, the sunrise lighting up the reef, coral polyps feeding in the current. The more you slow down, the more there is to see.

Taking your time and really looking at what’s around you can reveal so much more than rushing over huge distances ever could.

Sometimes, the most extraordinary part of being underwater isn’t how far you go, but how much you notice. The magic is in the details.

#underwaterphotography #ocean #diving #indonesia taken in Indonesia by @nicole.holmann

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2 months ago

From a wild night filming with @inthewakeofgiants ✨ @tomcannonphotography and I were looking for a whale shark he’d spotted earlier when a plume started rising from a neighbouring island. You truly never know what you’re going to get when you’re working in the Ring of Fire 😂

Indonesia is home to more than 17,500+ islands and roughly 130 active volcanoes, making it one of the most volcanically active places on Earth.

Over millions of years, tectonic activity from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have shaped Indonesia’s dynamic and rich landscape where so many new species remain to be discovered. And just offshore lies the Coral Triangle, the global epicentre of marine biodiversity. 🌋🌊

So grateful to work with a project that’s working to document and advocate for the incredible biodiversity here.

Filmed in remote eastern Indonesia. No local people or homes were harmed by the volcano.

@inthewakeofgiantsfilm @kyle.roepke @tomcannonphotography @jonoallenphotography 🩵 by @nicole.holmann

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2 months ago

Some Bahamas moments from the Exuma Cays, hidden deep in my Favorites folder from a while back.

I love that Big Major Cay is uninhabited… by people, anyway. Today, around 20 pigs and piglets call the island home 🐷

There are a few theories about how they got here, but no one knows for sure. Some say sailors left them on the island and never returned. Others speculate that they swam ashore from a shipwreck and survived by eating food dumped by passing ships.

Either way, not a bad place to end up stranded.

The otherworldly appearance of this place was shaped over millions of years as layers of sedimentary rock were deposited on the ancient seafloor, then gradually uplifted and sculpted by wind, waves, and weather. The result is this surreal chain of islands, shallow turquoise waters, and limestone landscapes that almost don’t look real.

It’s like stepping into a real-life fine art painting 🎨

#bahamas #exumas #underwaterphotography taken in Bahamas by @nicole.holmann

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2 months ago

All my favourite colours are underwater ✨

Did you know colour actually disappears the deeper you go?

Water absorbs light in wavelengths, so reds fade first, then oranges, yellows…until everything eventually turns blue.

That’s why adding video lights at depth feels a bit like magic. It reintroduces the colours that were there all along 💙

Shot with the @krakensports 18,000 lumen video lights 🔦

#underwaterphotography #ocean #diving #indonesia taken in Indonesia by @nicole.holmann

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2 months ago

Some Baja before-and-afters that show the power of underwater colour grading 🎨🖌️

The truth of underwater photo and video work is that for every hour spent in the water shooting, there are 2–3 in front of a computer screen in Lightroom, Premiere, or DaVinci 😂

Getting to a place, spending time in the ocean, being patient, getting skunked, getting lucky, being respectful, letting wildlife encounters unfold in front of you, being in the right place, reading behaviour, and getting a shot… that’s only half of the journey.

Even then, raw files are usually flat and green.

I can’t tell you how many photos I’ve thought were complete garbage until I took a pass at them in Lightroom, and how many I’ve rediscovered years later because of that.

I think grading is more about bringing it back to what it actually felt like underwater.

Starting to think about teaching this kind of thing 1-on-1. Shoot me a message if that’s something you might be interested in 🩵✨ taken in Baja California Sur, Mexico by @nicole.holmann

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3 months ago

The kind of place you just feel the magic 🩵✨

Baja is pretty wild when you think about it. Millions of years ago, it was connected to mainland Mexico, but as tectonic plates shifted, the peninsula slowly moved northwest, shaping the Sea of Cortez into the incredible ecosystem we know today.

As the sea continues to deepen, nutrients from the deep ocean are brought up to the surface, creating a place that is home to nearly 39% of the world’s marine mammal species and one-third of all cetacean (whale and dolphin) species.

Whale Shark photos from a really fun assignment with @oceanographic_mag and @whalesharkmexico. One of the best things we can do when we travel is give back to the places we love. If you’ve been to Baja, or hoping to go soon, check out their amazing work!

#bajacalifornia #underwaterphoto #ocean #seaofcortez #whaleshark taken in Baja California Sur, Mexico by @nicole.holmann

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3 months ago

We’d travel this far and more to do it all over again ✨ Still in awe of the week in Baja with @diveninjas

Feeling really grateful to have shared it with a friend like this. We don’t see each other all the time, but when we do, it’s somewhere wild, in a different country, out on the ocean, picking up right where we left off. Talking about life, work, navigating this crazy industry and everything we’re excited about.

No better way to catch up 🫶

Who’s coming with next year?!

#underwaterphotography #expedition #humpbackwhale #bajacalifornia #mobularays taken in Baja California Sur, Mexico by @nicole.holmann

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3 months ago