Linda Ness is a highly qualified and successful engineer and business owner. She is also a freediver, kayaker, traveller and a skilled marine and nature photographer.
Inspired by her deeply-entrenched love for the ocean, nature and Africa, Umhlanga-based engineer Linda Ness has turned her lifelong hobby and passion project into a growing photographic art business.
“It is not my goal to become a famous photographer. I just want to influence people to think a little more carefully about the ocean,” says Linda, who recently exhibited her work (a collection of marine images) for the first time at Spice restaurant in Westbrook. The proceeds of the exhibition were donated to a non-profit organisation called the Litterboom Project.
Born in Zimbabwe, Linda has spent much of her life in and on the water. “We spent a lot of time on boats and snorkelling in Mozambique, Sodwana Bay and Lake Kariba as kids,” she says.
Linda learned how to scuba dive while studying engineering at university and took up kayaking soon after qualifying. “I did some really crazy stuff in my twenties and thirties,” she laughs, reminiscing about an eight-day source-to-sea paddle on the Mzimkulu River in the Drakensberg and a kayaking trip in the Everest region of Nepal.
Linda has completed 20 Duzi canoe marathons and it was through paddling, she says, that she met her partner, Glen Wittstock. “We’ve actually done about seven or eight Duzi’s together,” she smiles.
She is also passionate about travelling, and Linda says she often used to take a few months off to backpack around the world. And always with her camera in hand.
She and Glen still do a lot of travelling, she says, usually taking a few months off every year to go overlanding somewhere in Africa. Her exquisite wildlife photography is a testament to her love of Africa.
Linda has worked and lived overseas, but decided to settle on the KZN North Coast. Having worked on some of the largest sport stadiums in the Middle East and Hong Kong, she launched her award-winning engineering business, NJV Consulting, 15 years ago.
But it is in the ocean that she is at her happiest. “I had always wanted to see a whale up close and so I decided to do a photography course in Tonga about eight years ago.
“It was life-changing. I invested in a camera and proper housing and off I went. I was completely blown away by the experience. There were only five of us and we spent the whole week flopping around in the clear, warm water with the whales.”
When she returned to South Africa, Linda took up freediving. She later did hypoxic breath-hold training with some of the big-name big wave surfers in the province. “I wanted to be able to understand the physiological tell-tale signs of my body, so that I would be able to stick around under water with the animals safely, without feeling like I was about to die.”
Learning to navigate and properly use her camera equipment in the waves and underwater, and understanding her breathing, were just the first steps towards becoming a marine photographer. “You also have to learn to understand the animals and their behaviour.”
Every year for the past four years Linda has spent time photographing the sardine run in the Transkei. Now, she says, she is absolutely hooked!
“It’s incredible. I go with the same skipper and team every year because I trust them and they know how to behave around the animals. They also know what I’m hoping to get out of the trip. The predators and the big bait ball action are absolutely mind-blowing.”
Having photographed everything from massive whales and huge dolphin pods, to sea turtles and beautiful marine fish and birdlife, Linda shares the story of what she says was probably her most ‘radical’ shark encounter.
“We were freediving among tiger sharks and a huge shoal of sardines at Aliwal Shoal. They are generally very shy and we saw a big one come close and then drift away. All of a sudden it appeared to be coming back, but we then realised it was actually a four-metre long Great White. There were eight of us and, luckily we all remained very calm and grouped together. The shark just circled us for a while and then left. It wasn’t aggressive at all. We still talk about that day often though, and how different things could have been if one of us had panicked. You learn a lot about yourself in situations like that,” she laughs.
While she sells most of her prints (as either fine art prints or canvas prints) on her website and Instagram page, Linda was also recently invited as a contributing artist of ocean imagery on a new website, www.fineartphotoprints.co.za
“So little is being done to protect our oceans, and even less now after Covid. I’m so passionate about showing people how beautiful our ocean is, especially the youth. Our kids don’t know enough about the ocean. If we can teach them and show them the beauty from a young age, they will learn to love it and protect it for generations to come.”
Details: www.lindaness.co.za, @linda.ness.pix, www.fineartphotoprints.co.za
Text: LEAH SHONE | Underwater photographs: LINDA NESS | Portrait of Linda: @tracilee_photography
