Cindy Yang and the Art of Freediving Photography
Because it is an art. The precise dance between a photographer on one breath and her subject in an environment where every variable works against you.
Shooting freediving and marine life underwater often requires skillfully navigating low light, strong currents, unpredictable animal behaviour, and your own oxygen limits to create images that connect people to what exists below the surface.
Balancing natural light at depth, capturing an animal’s natural behaviour without disturbance, and doing it all on a single breath: that’s technical skill meeting patience.
Cindy Yang is an underwater photographer, freediving coach, and expedition guide based on the Gold Coast. Her background combines wildlife and conservation biology with emergency medical services. She spent years as a firefighter-paramedic in California while guiding surf charters around the Indian Ocean. That foundation taught her to assess risk quickly, communicate clearly, and move deliberately in dynamic conditions.
These same principles shape how she works underwater. She photographs the intersections between humans and marine ecosystems: the breath-hold, the approach, the moment of mutual recognition between diver and animal. Her subjects range from apex predators in open water to intimate reef ecosystems, captured across locations from California’s kelp forests to the Arctic fjords.
Beyond photography, she runs Ocean Glide, teaching freediving and spearfishing in small groups, guiding international expeditions, and developing natural products for water people. The work connects: what she teaches about moving respectfully through the ocean informs what she captures through the lens, and both serve the same purpose: helping people genuinely see what’s worth protecting.”
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