Flip Nicklin

:: Flip Nicklin - Arts - 1994

Widely regarded as the premier whale photographer of the world, Flip Nicklin, a National Geographic photographer, has more than 5,500 dives under his belt. His ability to free dive to depths of up to 90 feet allows him to swim near enough to record whale behavior without interrupting it.

Flip Nicklin was born with both diving and photography in his blood. His father, Chuck, is a diver and underwater cinematographer, who taught his sons to become scuba divers. At the age of fourteen, he was helping his father teach people to dive off of the coast of Southern California, in La Jolla.

His first contact with National Geographic Society came in 1976 when he was signed on as a deck hank and diving assistant for a three-month shoot with photographers Bates Littlehales and Jonathan Blair. Everyday he shot with the photographers, a life-long dream for him. With the help of his mentors, two of his images were published, along with theirs in the Geographic.

The publication of these two shots, began his career as an underwater photographer. He went on to shoot sharks and whales for the Geographic centennial issue. Eight years after his first publication, he had become the marine mammal photographer for the National Geographic.

Nicklin has written numerous articles and several books including With the Whales and Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises, published by the National Geographic Society; which he coordinated and to which he contributed many of the photographs. His most recent book Whales and Dolphins in Question / JAMES G. MEAD AND Flip Nicklin, published by Smithsonian.

Flip Nicklin first worked with Humpback Whales in Lahaina in 1979. With his father, Chuck, he was part of an Imax Movie crew filming "Nomads of the Deep". He returned in 1980 to help Jim Darling determine the sex of singing Humpbacks (male). His first National Geographic Magazine story on Maui Humpbacks was in 1982. He published a second National Geographic story about Darlings' work with Humpbacks in 1999.

Since 1996, Flip has worked with Jim Darling in a study of Humpback Whales off the coast of Maui. He is a co-investigator, along with Ph.D. candidate Meagan Jones.