Like the tall lifeguard perches and the faint aroma of SPF 30 in the air, Sutton Lynch is virtually a summer fixture at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett. He arrives early each morning, around 6:30, parks his beach chair and plants a big, tasseled umbrella into the sand -- he'll need it for the six to eight hours he spends on the beach each day.
At first glance, he looks like any other 20-something home for the summer: salty-haired and blond, tanned, broad-shouldered, eyes fixed on a screen. But, that's not his phone he's checking. Nor is he scrolling through Instagram or TikTok. Instead, he's busy looking at the images being transmitted from his drone, which is flying high above the ocean, about 400 yards out.
Mr. Lynch, an aerial photographer specializing in marine life, said his love for photography crystalized at the age of 13 after photographing a garden snake with his first camera.
On a recent morning at Atlantic Beach, he spoke about his artistic pursuit. "Now that I've found my place in photography" -- Your place? He is just 23 -- "the water, the ocean, the marine life, that just makes me the happiest of anything I've photographed. It's an ecstatic feeling when I see one of those hammerheads, or a marlin, or even a whale. I see whales every day but they still get me giddy."
Mr. Lynch has been claimed by the ocean. His website and Instagram page, where his work is displayed, is an expanse of grays and blue, a never-ending sea. Inside each mesmerizing, watery rectangle is a sea creature, sometimes many -- dolphins, spinner sharks, bluefish swimming in formations, humpback whales breaching, feeding, diving, breaking the ocean's skin; there are cartilaginous cownose rays gracefully gliding along, schools of sand eels, bunker, and lots more dolphins being cute and playful. These creatures are his muses, the ocean his obsession.
"I feel guilty if I'm not down here. I feel obligated to be here and film these animals. If I can't get to the beach, there's a pit in my stomach," he said, one eye constantly on his screen, to ensure that talking about himself doesn't deter him from his daily mission, because he knows that the expanse in front of him is, plainly, a fluid state, a place of transition and constant transmutation. Anything can pop up at any time.
He bought the drone in 2018 as a natural progression from the GoPro camera he owned as teenager, transitioning from point-of-view footage to swooping shots from the sky. For him, it offered an entirely new perspective and a powerful way to showcase the abundance of marine life that returned to these waters after a 2012 policy regulated harvesting the Atlantic manhaden, or bunker, often called "the most important fish in the sea." Eaten by a long list of predatory fish along the East Coast of the United States, the menhaden population rebounded to historic numbers by 2018, attracting whales, dolphins, and sharks in droves. Mr. Lynch began capturing them on film almost immediately and built a presence for his work on social media.
"I use social media extensively to push my work out, and think it can be a very powerful tool for positive change. But the gratification it can provide is no supplement for the contentment and overall health benefits that being outside provides. I want my work to push people to go out and see these incredible animals for themselves. We are beyond privileged to live in a place with such direct access to breathtaking marine life. I want my work to help others understand why these animals have returned to our waters, appreciate this privilege, and respect our community's connection to it," he wrote in an email. He is thoughtful and precise, clearly the beneficiary of the restorative effect that light and water is known to have on humans.
Each day -- except on very windy or cloudy ones -- he waits patiently at the beach, studying the ocean for any splashing or jumping. He understands the patterns of the wildlife -- "In July, the whales usually come through between 10 a.m. and noon, but in August, they're here around 7 a.m." When he spots some marine life action, he launches his aerial camera, while watching his screen for the drone's view. Sometimes, he'll push the drone's limits and send it much farther out, like he did about three weeks ago when he caught a breathtaking sight: a hammerhead shark, 13 to 15 feet long, swimming about 2,500 feet offshore.
"It was the most exciting thing I've seen." He lowered the drone to between 75 and 100 feet above the water, got his shots, and then held his breath as he guided the drone back. If he lost the machine, his prized photos would be gone, too. "As soon as the drone returned, I took out the memory card, placed it in a safe spot, put a new card in, and sent it back out."
The commercial side to his art hasn't been realized as yet, he admitted, although he holds regular sales of his prints at the beach and at his Springs house. As a licensed drone operator, he's also employed by the Town of East Hampton as a shark and bluefish spotter. "Maybe after all the marine life have gone in the fall, I'll have more time to think about that side of my art."
Mr. Lynch was raised in East Hampton by parents who encouraged him and his three siblings to spend less time in front of the TV and more time playing out in nature. He was a lifeguard for about six years and surfed occasionally but, ultimately, he said, "I always preferred to be in the ocean, swimming in the waves." In 2022, he graduated from Colorado College, where he studied the intersection of environmental science and art.
"I loved Colorado's nature and I've always been a skier, so I did lots of landscape photography. But, the water . . . ," he said, trailing off, looking out to the horizon. Oh, the eternal allure of the ocean.
He plans to take his marine photography to another level, having recently bought a water housing for his camera. He'll go out to sea, he said, maybe in a kayak, or on a paddleboard, or simply swim out wearing a pair of fins. "Underwater photography adds more depth. Drone photography can be two dimensional, since you're always looking down," he said, before adding, "But being out there in the water is another level of intimacy with these animals. I'm not scared of the sharks but I am of the bluefish. I don't want to be in the middle of one of those schools."
Oh, and in case readers are wondering: His favorite food is sushi.
