If you’re like me, you’ve been anxiously searching for any relief from the Bad News™ and endless stream of AI slop plaguing your feed. Joseph Ricketts’ breathtaking wildlife videos could be the antidote. An alligator taking a nap on the floor of a crystal clear spring. Schools of fish glittering in the darkness. A cosmic cloud of burnt orange tannic river swirling into clear blue water. A giant salamander battle on an Appalachian riverbed.
Joseph is an ecologist, underwater videographer, and alligator researcher based in Florida. He brings a calming and curious gaze to some of the more obscure underwater vistas through his work as a scientist and wildlife researcher, with his photography and videography skills. With his undersea strobes, he casts light on the mesmerizing behavior of some of the more obscure creatures that lurk below the water’s surface, creating beautiful videos while educating his audience on the vulnerable wildlife he finds there. Documenting Florida’s natural springs and America’s freshwater ecosystems has become a passion project. The Verge caught up with him to learn about his fascinating YouTube content.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Science or photography first?
It would probably be photography first. Actually, I got into wildlife and animals as a kid. There was a creek in a park near our house and we found bullfrog tadpoles in there and they were really big. That just blew my mind and set me on the path of being interested in wildlife. My dad got a camera at some point and on some family trips I would use it and got really interested in it. All of that together led to me getting interested in science and then conservation, storytelling, and wildlife filmmaking.
How did you get involved with ecology?
I was in Boy Scouts as a kid and there was another kid in our group who was really into snakes. I also grew up watching Steve Irwin, who was a huge hero of mine.
Growing up in the Southeast, people have very strong feelings about snakes. They do not like them — especially the venomous ones. It was neat to watch Steve Irwin and the way that he approached all sorts of animals, no matter how dangerous they were, with immense joy and curiosity. To see someone in my own community also be interested in that, it was like, “I can do this too.”
And then, learning to love these animals but still seeing a lot of people who just wanted all of them eliminated from the environment. Even when I was young, I was thinking: what does it mean to protect these animals and what does it mean to encourage other people to change their mindset? How do you justify protecting and conserving an animal that might be potentially dangerous? What about the environmental importance of predators? I was so interested and passionate, I ended up studying conservation science in undergraduate and grad school.
And you now specialize in alligators?
A lot of my professional work has been with reptiles and amphibians. Currently I am studying alligators and crocodiles.
What specifically are you researching?
We monitor alligator populations. I’ve helped out with some projects on American crocodiles, which are a native threatened species in Florida. One project I helped with was putting satellite transmitters on crocodiles we captured and monitoring their movements through urban areas in South Florida. The goal of that project was to get a better idea of their behavior in those highly urban environments because they move quite a bit. They have very variable home ranges. Some can be in a really small area, but then sometimes they’ll just up and go for a 20-mile swim to somewhere else entirely. The goal is to learn how to better cultivate safe coexistence with these animals in such a dense and highly populated area such as South Florida.
How did you start getting into underwater filming?
I first started out with a GoPro, because it’s a very accessible and not too expensive way to get a camera underwater. In college, my roommates and friends always tried to go on some kind of adventure during spring break. We were super fascinated with the idea of snorkeling in clear water, because that wasn’t something that was around us where we grew up. So every spring break we drove down to Florida. We snorkeled in the Keys and discovered Florida’s springs along some of those trips.
I would take photos with the GoPro, even though it’s not really meant for that. But underwater photography equipment is really expensive and I just thought, “There’s no way, I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to afford that.”
But then after my wife and I graduated, we got married, lived in North Carolina for a little while, and then, because she’s originally from Pensacola, Florida, we moved back. I got a job doing some ecology work here in Gainesville.
One day I was just cruising around Facebook Marketplace and I saw a camera housing made to fit a 20-year-old camera that was within millimeters of the size of my camera. It was a tenth of the price of what an average full kit cost. So I got it. I had to make some modifications and I actually used Lego pieces to make some of the controls fit my camera. I had pretty limited control underwater, but I could do auto ISO, and then control the aperture and the shutter speed, and pull the trigger to get a shot. When I did video, I had to start recording, put the camera in the housing, close it, and then I couldn’t do anything else. It would just be one single shot the whole time. So it wasn’t great for video, but that’s how I got started. And then I realized I was a pretty decent wildlife photographer.
I took some photos and I got shortlisted in some pretty major international competitions. I didn’t push through to be a finalist, but it was enough to be, “I actually have some skill in this and it’s worth pursuing.” It just kind of kept building up from there. Eventually I got another used housing that was designed for my camera. By that point, I was selling prints and doing some other things, so I was able to finally fully upgrade my kit to where I’m at now.
What kind of tech is in your diving kit?
I’m using the Canon R5 with a Canon EF-RF adapter and a Canon EF 8-15mm f/4 L fish-eye lens. It’s a super wide-angle lens that people tend to use either for underwater or for skateboard photography. It’s a little weird because everything’s a little distorted and kind of rounded, but when you’re underwater, it’s really great for taking photos that just kind of immerse you in that system. You can focus extremely close to your subject. You can be an inch away and still focus on it. Since the angle is so wide, you can lock in on the eye of the wildlife and kind of capture their face, but also the rest of the scene and their entire body, even if it’s a bigger animal.
I use an Ikelite 200DL Dive Housing, and I’ve got two Sea & Sea YS-90DX strobes and two 2900 VTL BigBlue Dive Lights. The strobes connect to the camera so that when you pull the trigger, it lets off some light, because the deeper you go underwater, light tends to fade pretty quickly and that little flash of white light just kind of restores color to the scene.
I also have an Ikelite 8-inch Dome Port with an extension that is wide enough so that the super-wide fish-eye lens doesn’t get cut off by the design of the dive housing. If you hold it right on the surface it can create a water line so you can get split shots.
I use Lightroom and Photoshop for editing photos and making prints. I use Premiere Pro for editing videos.
How do you decide what you’re going to film?
I have to find an idea that is interesting to me. Sometimes it’s a story that I think needs to be told, and that I feel qualified with the knowledge to do it. I need to know the location and be confident that I can get the shots I need safely. I also want to feel capable of telling the story in a meaningful way.
Science and wildlife are such huge subjects. It’s hard. There’s a lot of people that tend to tout themselves as wildlife experts, but unless they’re very, very experienced, that raises a red flag. I wouldn’t describe myself as that. I have to do a lot of research myself and I learn things along the way too.
I’m really passionate about anything aquatic because I love doing underwater photography and videography. That’s the main part of my social media and YouTube channel. I especially love showing people unique environments where you wouldn’t tend to think about what life looks like underwater. I think about what wildlife I might encounter there, and what conservation story I can weave through that. Also, is there enough visibility in the water for me to get my camera in and actually get usable shots that people can connect with?
There’s a disconnect that exists between people and wildlife in the natural world that we have to actively combat, like climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction. There’s another disconnect between us and what lies beneath the surface, and I really want to do what I can to bridge that gap. It’s important that people put faces to the creatures that live in these places, no matter how big or how small they are. They’re all important, wonderful, worth learning and worth caring about. Aquatic ecosystems are very sensitive environments. It’s important to know what’s there, to know what we might stand to lose.
Do you have a story in mind before you dive, or do you usually piece things together after?
I love photography and being able to tell a story through a single image, but I also love longer forms, using video to tell stories as well.
My creative process is definitely evolving. I’ll have the beginnings of an idea while I’m trying to work out the storytelling and trying to find ways to help people connect to it. Typically I’ll have an idea of the area I want to cover for the shot and what I’m going to focus on. One example was trying to find a very specific species of very tiny fish that lives in springs.
That Gulf Coast pygmy sunfish is a beautiful fish.
They’re so cool. So my idea was that it’s going to be about finding that fish, filming it, hopefully getting some behavior. That was about what I had to work with, and I was lucky enough to see quite a bit of behavior.
After I get the footage all edited down to the best clips and have a general concept of a story, that’s when I’ll write the script. Writing the script last is not normal for most creators, but I want the adventure and the action of going out and snorkeling, exploring these places, to be the heart of the channel. Sometimes I might have a little bit more script on certain parts, but normally I don’t have any control over what I’m going to see. So I have to go out and shoot, and then come back and do the story from that.
What are the biggest challenges that you’re trying to work through?
A big challenge is sustainability and how I can be consistent and not burn out, because it is a lot of work, going out to explore and dive, sometimes not having a lot of success and other times having success. How do I pace myself? I think I’ve kind of settled on a pretty decent schedule.
Another challenge is that a lot of YouTube is shock value and clickbait. I want to use my channel to push back against that. The algorithm seems to be changing to entertain longer attention spans and boost authentic and real content. But I want to be able to use my channel to help people appreciate even little details and small things.
Like if you go snorkeling and you’re in the ocean or on a reef, obviously the really big things like the sharks and huge rays are going to be what stand out to you. But if you’re in a tiny pond and there’s nothing around, and then you find one living thing, suddenly that thing becomes really interesting. I want to be able to tell stories about some of the less exciting things and make those interesting.
Such as the video you made about Appalachian Hellbenders. I never imagined salamanders would duke it out like that. Do you like being based in Florida?
It’s great, but in a lot of ways it’s hard and frustrating, too. Florida has some absolutely amazing wildlife and amazing ecosystems, and as an underwater photographer, it’s a great place to be. There’s the coasts, the Keys, freshwater springs, rivers and streams as well. There are a lot of places that are within reasonable driving distance to find underwater adventures and stories to tell. It’s frustrating because there’s so much to lose and Florida is also developing at a very unsustainable rate. There are new developments going up everywhere. A lot of spots I love are degrading. I’ve been going to the springs since college and some of them are almost unrecognizable from when I first visited them 10 years ago. It’s an issue globally and definitely around the US, but I think Florida is experiencing that at an accelerated rate.
It’s a good place to be as a conservationist because there’s lots of work to be done, messages to get out there, but it can be draining and exhausting. Sometimes [you] feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle with no breaks or rest.
Sounds like politics combined with being a tourist and retirement destination.
A huge problem is that people are moving here and not taking the time to learn about the natural community that exists prior to their arrival. So people move here and are surprised to see an alligator in their backyard. Or other really wealthy people move to South Florida and have crocodiles around, and they freak out because that’s totally new to them. But this is Florida. We have venomous snakes, we have alligators, we have crocodiles. They belong here. They’re important for this ecosystem. If you can’t embrace that, then I don’t know what you’re expecting.
There are plenty of ways to learn to safely live alongside these creatures. There’s just a huge need to meet the influx of new people with education and reminding people that we want Florida to remain wild. So much of the appeal of Florida is its natural environment and so there’s plenty of reasons why it needs to be protected, but it is kind of a constant battle.
I love Florida so much. It’s such a beautiful place, an important place to protect, but it has a ton of challenges facing it.
Are there any spots that you really want to dive into that you haven’t had the chance to yet?
Because a lot of my stuff is Florida-based, I would really love to do a series of diving in every single state in the US. Some of that would be more predictable, like diving off the coast of Maine. That’d be cool. But though you never hear of anyone going to Nebraska or Oklahoma to snorkel, there’s underwater stories to be told there and I would love the chance to do that. So I’m hoping if the channel grows enough, there’ll be interest enough from the audience to support something like that.
Of course I would absolutely love to travel internationally to do some videos as well. I think that’s something I would need to earn, because there are definitely other people who might be more qualified to tell some of those stories. But I think if my channel [followers] were interested and wanted me to, I would absolutely love the chance to do that. There are a lot of freshwater springs around the world.
I just hope that I can continue to inspire people to be kind and curious about the world around them and pay attention to the little things. It’s important to be mindful of our individual impacts on the world around us, but also to hold ourselves as a community and as a country to a higher standard as far as protecting our natural resources and our wildlife, because we don’t get a second chance at this. It’s important that we take it seriously and we get it right.
I think it’s hard to learn to love something if you don’t know that that thing exists or haven’t been able to see it in its home. So I hope that my underwater videos can help people to get a glimpse into those underwater worlds to see that they’re places that are really special, worth protecting, and worth keeping wild.
