Born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Micheal has been an avid conservationist since childhood. Fishing trips to the Amazo and abroad during his formative years whetted his appetite for exploration. At 18, he moved to the US to attend Lehigh University and to begin his career in advertising, consulting and financial services.

In 1991, he relocated to South Florida. With the Gulf Stream at his doorstep, he began photographing the area s rich marine life while pursuing a corporate career and obtaining his MBA from the University of Miami.

For the past 13 years, he has traveled extensively as a photographer and writer, concentrating primarily on sea life and environmental issues. His work, widely published, aims to educate and to communicate to the others the beauty, diversity and fragility of the oceans-and the urgent need to protect them.

Micheal achieved one of the highest awards in the field of natural photography by winning first place in the 2002 BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition (Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Wildlife). The annual competition, the most pretigious of its kind, attracts more than 18,000 entries from accross the globe and culminates in an unforgettable awards ceremony in London's Museum of Natural History.

In 2002, 2003 and 2004, he also received "Highly Honored/Honorable Mentions" in the nature's Best Wildlife Photography Contest in the "Environmental Issues" and "Oceans" categories.

Micheal works with photo agents in New York and London, and his photography has been licensed to many publishers in a variety of mediums. Partial credits include:

Magazines and Newspapers:
BBC Wildlife, Car Designer, Dive, Dive new Zealand, FHM Magazine (South Africa),
Flyfishing in Salt Waters, Metro Life, Nature, Nature's Best, Newsweek, Nice Matin,
Ocean Realm, Palm Beach Post, Popular Science, Reuters, Scotland on Sunday, Scuba Diving, Skin Diver, Smithsonian, Southern Diver, Sport Diver, Times of London, US News and World Report, Videnskab, Women in the Outdoors

To learn more about Micheal's books, please visit: www.batfishbooks.com
To see more of Micheal's photography, please visit www.mpostock.com