“I think it was my junior year, I was able to enroll in a vocational photography program at the high school. And that was the first time I’d ever done anything that I felt like I had sort of an innate talent for, an innate ability for. I came home from high school one day, and I said, dad, I’ve got it all figured out. I want to be a professional photographer. ”
—Jonathan Kingston, professional photographer
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Jonathan Kingston for a four-part interview you won’t want to miss. We’re always intrigued by a professional photographer’s journey, and Jonathan shares how his passion led him down a path that has taken him to some incredible places, including beneath the ocean’s surface to capture stunning underwater photography!
Jonathan Kingston is a National Geographic contributing photographer and founding member of Submerged Archaeological Conservancy International. Don’t miss this insightful edited conversation!
Text below transcribed from a portion of an interview conducted by Betty of Cradoc fotoSoftware in March 2025. To view this and other interviews, please go to our Cradoc fotoSoftware YouTube Channel.
Behind the Lens: The Story of a Professional Photographer’s Start
I’m Jonathan Kingston, and I’m a contributing photographer at National Geographic. I certainly didn’t start there, I started way back in the late nineties as a kid growing up in Virginia, moved to the West Coast and got into photography and kind of went from there. But, what I do is a lot of travel photography. I do maritime archeology, and documentary work. So that’s my wheelhouse.
How did you get started?
Long long story short, in high school, I was never very good at anything. I didn’t do well in math, I did okay in writing, but nothing ever clicked. I was kind of a bad student. I think it was my junior year, I was able to enroll in a vocational photography program at the high school. And that was the first time I’d ever done anything that I felt like I had sort of an innate talent for, an innate ability for.
I came home from high school one day, and I said, dad, I’ve got it all figured out. I want to be a professional photographer. So I’ve got to make a picture of my father for you. He’s British. He’s an internationally well-known scientist, organic chemist, you know, bow-tie, tweed jacket. And, he just says, Jonathan, that’s not a good idea. But it really was the first thing I felt truly convicted about. So that was the moment for me. We sort of went back and forth over the dinner table many times, and eventually, he saw my passion for it. He saw that I wasn’t going to let it go.
And he said, okay, look, just go get a degree in anything other than photography. And if you still want to do it after that, you have my blessing. And that’s kind of how it all started.
I went to university. I studied communications. And then after that, I went on to pursue photography. I moved out to California and actually entered a photo school at that point, in Santa Barbara. So that was the beginning of it.
And I totally get it. I mean, I’m a parent now, and so I get where he was coming from. I didn’t when I was in high school. I just said, oh dad, you’re trying to crush my dreams. But now I get it. He wanted to make sure I had food on the table. And it was great advice because the people that I met at that school are ultimately the people that connected me with National Geographic. It wasn’t the people at photo school, it was the people I met at university on that first go around.
So he had some wise advice, and I’m glad I listened to him.
The Making of a Nature and Underwater Photographer
Have you always been interested in nature and underwater photography, or is that something that you transitioned to over time?
That’s a great question. You know, the underwater photography thing actually happened as I was finishing up the first university, and I was looking at this catalog for the photography school. I said, wow. They offer a course in underwater photography. That sounds like the coolest course on the planet. I’ve never been a scuba diver, I grew up in the mountains of Virginia, but when I moved to California and enrolled in the school and took that class, it was again one of those epiphanous moments. I learned how to scuba dive.
I got in the water. There’s just something so incredible about being in that realm, being weightless. It’s like, I think every great science fiction writer is probably an underwater diver as well. Just seeing this whole other planet, that really resonated with me. And that’s kind of what started that.
Coming out of that and coming into the professional world, what was really nice is there’s not a lot of people doing underwater photography. There’s some, but it was an almost instant specialty that I could say, hey, I have this skill. That made it a differentiator that would make people more curious and interested to hire me. And that’s actually how I got into some of the archeology stuff on various projects. People needed someone that could dive down and photograph some of these finds that they were finding. So it all kind of snowballed that way.
Starting out as a Professional Photographer: Learning from Others’ Journeys
Starting out as a new photographer? Take a look at a past blog about finding a mentor. Also check out this blog about other photographers’ origin stories.
About Jonathan Kingston
Jonathan Kingston serves as a contributing photographer for National Geographic and is a founding member of Submerged Archaeological Conservancy International. His photography centers on maritime archaeology, natural history, and the human experience, blending scientific insight, exploration, and narrative to foster deeper global understanding.
Website: Jonathan Kingston
Instagram: @jonathankingston
LinkedIn: Jonathan Kingston
<h3>See other great interview transcripts:</h3>
- Todd Bigelow
- Jonathan Kingston
- Julie Bidwell
- Steve Whittaker
- Scott Dworkin
