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Matinee: The Whites Explore 'Our Backyard'
6 July 2019
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 299th in our series of Saturday matinees today: Wildlife Photographer Doc and Ceci White Explore 'Our Backyard.'
This 3:28 video takes you aboard a Swift Trawler 47 skippered by marine photographer Doc White and his wife Ceci as they sail from San Francisco to San Diego. That little run of coast is what they call their backyard.
Gage Hingeley and Julian Clark of Ocean Magic Productions shot the video at Monterey Bay Aquarian and at sea, capturing gray and humpback whales migrating north, as well as dolphins escorting the boat to Catalina.
The Whites themselves are just as interesting as the marine life.
The two of them have sailed the Pacific from Alaska to the Galapagos and on to Papua New Guinea and Australia.
After graduating from the University of North Carolina, White joined the Navy, taking command of a Swift boat in 1969. It would not be a walk in the park.
After being wounded three times and awarded two Bronze Stars for value, the Purple Heart, the Cross of Gallantry and the Navy Commediation Medal for Valor, he got his pilot's license in 1973 and flew an F4 Phantom with Fighter Squadron 154 and made Double Centurion on the aircraft carrier USS Ranger.
But his first love was the sea. So when he left the Navy and after a brief appearance as a Continental Airlines pilot, he starting his own charter-dive operation in San Diego.
In the early 1990s, he met and married Ceci (si-si) who grew up in Arizona as a rodeo rider specializing in ribbon roping and barrel racing. Doc got her in the water and she became a certified diver.
The two of them have sailed the Pacific from Alaska to the Galapagos and on to Papua New Guinea and Australia. So this little jaunt to San Diego was like making a run to Trader Joe's.
It's enchanting footage. White never gets tired of the possibilities of what he'll see next, he says. So he never goes on a dive without his camera.
He hopes watching him convinces you it's possible for you to enjoy all this "amazing stuff out here," too. Especially, he points out, since you don't have to go very far to enjoy it for yourself.
Just out to the backyard, in fact.