Cortez Blue Photography & Wild Blue Pacific Publishing, LLC

Philip Bonds - Biography

The Banner County School in Harrisburg, Nebraska, is not as far from the ocean as one can get in the Continental United States, but it is close. In the early 1960’s, Philip Bonds watched an assembly program at the school. The assembly program featured a husband-wife underwater photographer team. Their slide show and scuba equipment display captured Philip’s imagination. As he watched their presentation, Philip knew that he would become a scuba diver and underwater photographer someday.

Philip chose a career path in education. He was a teacher and school administrator for over thirty-eight years. Most of his education career was spent working in middle and high schools in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. At one of his schools, he developed an exploratory elective program that included an introductory photography course. This course introduced sixty middle school students per year to photography for sixteen years.

In addition to his work in schools, Philip worked as a seasonal resource management park ranger for the National Park Service in Dinosaur National Monument for twelve years. During his tenure with the National Park Service, Philip received numerous performance awards for his work as a seasonal park mammalogist and his work with federal wildfire suppression teams. He also became an accomplished wildlife photographer while working for the National Park Service.

Living and working in Colorado provided opportunities for pursuit of an active, outdoor lifestyle as well as boundless opportunities to pursue wildlife and nature photography. Philip's perspective on wildlife and nature photography has been heavily influenced by following the work of photographers Thomas Mangelsen and the late-Michio Hoshino as well as wildlife artist Robert Bateman. Many of the first wildlife images he sold came right off the walls of his administrative offices at the schools where he served.

Despite growing up, pursuing a career and chasing wildlife and nature images far from the ocean, Philip never lost interest in the ocean, and becoming an underwater photographer. He was in his early thirties before he had an opportunity to realize his entry into scuba diving. He began diving in Northern California's Monterey Bay while serving as the training officer for a volunteer fire department in a small, rural community in Northwestern Colorado. It had taken over twenty-five years for Philip to realize a part of the vision generated by those underwater photographers at the Banner County School. Becoming a scuba diver was the easy part of the vision; capturing high quality underwater images proved to be much more difficult.

In 2010, Philip and the love of his life, Colleen, decided to retire from school service in Colorado and relocate to a warmer climate closer to the ocean. They relocated in Casa Grande, Arizona. Casa Grande’s location is within easy driving distance to diving locations in Mexico and California. Close proximity to the Sea of Cortez and Pacific Ocean enabled Philip to realize his vision of becoming an underwater photographer. His work literally involves working from the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains to beneath the surface of the ocean.

An award-winning photographer, Philip has been privileged to be able to live an adventurous life with few regrets. Cortez Blue Photography reflects Philip’s love for nature and wildlife photography, as well as his interest in environmental conservation. A three-year project produced a book about California sea lions. The book addresses issues involving California sea lions in the Sea of Cortez and Southern California’s Pacific Ocean. Colleen plays the important role of editor in Philip’s photography work since he sees the world in black & white; Philip is totally colorblind. He can frequently be found diving in Mexico and Southern California, in addition to pursuing wildlife & nature images in some of the most beautiful wild places on Planet Earth.