Tim Rock specializes in the imagery of the marine world and is a publisher, author, photographer, and owner of a photo gallery on Guam in the western Pacific. He attended the journalism program at the University of Nebraska – Omaha (UNO) and has been a professional broadcast and print photojournalist for 30 years. In April 2017, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the UNO School of Communications.

Tim was also a Guam Delegate for the Visual Arts (still photography and video) for the 2016 Pacific Festival of the Arts and he is a Guam Visitor’s Bureau Hafa Adai Spirit Award winner. In his early years, his news photography appeared on CBS, ABC, NBC, and CNN. The majority of his career has been in the Western and Indo-Pacific reporting on environmental and conservation issues. He has won the prestigious Excellence in the Use of Photography from the Society of Publishers in Asia. His TV show Aquaquest Micronesia was an ACE award finalist. He also lists many other awards for documentaries, television shows, photography, and writing. He works as a correspondent for numerous Pacific Rim magazines.

He is a Lonely Planet author and contributor to over sixteen Lonely Planet/Pisces series guides and also has his own series of guides and coffee table books available on Amazon and Apple as print and e-books. Rock has done work for National Geographic and has been published in National Geographic Publications, Smithsonian, GEO, Terre Sauvage, and numerous top-tier books and magazines. Tim started diving in Yap in 1983 and has always been amazed by the incredible marine life and warm nature of the Yapese people. He has written 8 different books about Yap and Yap’s Outer Islands and considers it his second home. “The people at Manta Ray Bay Resort are like family to me”, Tim says. “Going there for a visit is like going home. The island beauty, friendly people, and amazing diving are like nowhere else.”

I think I have known Tim since dinosaurs roamed the earth, or so it seems. I came to Yap as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1976 and was assigned to the Economic Development Office and the Office of Tourism. One of my early projects was to produce the first tourism brochure of Yap and Tim was a famous writer/photographer in Guam and our paths crossed briefly. Later on, Yap Divers was helped greatly by a good friend of Tim’s, Mr. Pete Peterson the owner of Micronesian Diving Association. Tim had long been attracted to, and had worked in, Yap but being a diver and us being the only dive shop, our paths crossed again and this time, the relationship stuck. I have been very fortunate to know Tim, spend time with him, and be the beneficiary of a LOT of his excellent photography over the years. We have never had a website, brochure, or another form of publicity created by us that didn’t feature at least one of Tim’s excellent images. He has been very gracious with his work and we are all exceptionally thankful.

If you want to see more of Tim’s work please visit https://www.doubleblueimages.com.