About Bartolomeo





Born and raised in Italy, I moved to Florida in 2005. I have been working as a professional shark diver and wildlife & underwater videographer since 2015.
I have always had a passion for traveling and getting involved in outdoors activities, and after spending the first few years in Central Florida I relocated to the south, precisely to Hallandale Beach, a small coastal city between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. There I had the opportunity to enjoy to the fullest something that I’ve always loved since childhood: the beach and the ocean. So, when I was given a video camera as a gift, I began to participate in water related activities developing a passion for filming the local aquatic wildlife.
The Florida reef is the third largest coral reef system in the world with beautiful seabeds that offer diving opportunities both for scuba divers and snorkelers. A large variety of creatures can be found in these waters: sea turtles, barracudas, lobsters, rays, moray eels, many types of fish with different colors and shapes and…sharks.
About one hour and a half north of my place there is the coastal city of Jupiter. The waters off the coast of Jupiter abound year-round with many species of sharks brought by the warm gulf stream: nurse, sandbar, dusky, silky, bull, lemon, tiger, hammerhead, mako, blacktip and, occasionally, great white sharks. In this area, a few specialized companies run trips, both for scuba and free divers, to dive with these majestic animals, offering opportunities to debunk all the myths about these misunderstood animals, too often depicted by the media as man-eater monsters that generate in us a primal fear. So, one day, many years ago, I decided to participate in one of these shark diving trips, and, I must say, the sensation of observing so closely and in its natural environment an animal so fascinating and majestic could not be described by words, the footage taken with the camera gave a better idea.
Since then, diving with sharks became my passion. I also became very passionate about filming and editing the videos that I was making with the sharks and other aquatic life. Shortly afterwards this passion turned into a real job, and I started working as a professional shark diver, bringing people of any age and level of diving experience to swim with the sharks and have a first-hand experience with these beautiful and majestic animals in their natural environment.
Even if I have been doing this activity for quite some time now it never gets old. During every dive I feel the same astonishment and emotion as the clients, who perhaps see a shark up close for the first time, especially when we encounter an unexpected species, because every dive is different from the other. Personally, finding myself swimming with the sharks in the same environment gives me a feeling both of peace and excitement and it gives me great satisfaction when I succeed in capturing with my camera a particular shot that I had in mind.
The passion for the underwater world and the desire to film new scenarios and different species led me to improve and upgrade my diving skills obtaining over the years several dive certifications and becoming a divemaster.
In addition to the dives with the sharks, I broadened in the last years my range of interest toward the wildlife species to film by traveling to different parts of the world where I had the opportunity to be face to face with extremely fascinating aquatic and non-aquatic creatures.
My work and my videos are featured in many articles, magazines and documentaries around the world.
