Who Are We?

Swimages is a division of McDonnell Photography, a full service family portrait studio located in Marina, California, and is owned and operated by Kevin and Ashley McDonnell. The concept of Swimages was created by the McDonnells in 2004 when they enrolled their young son in swimming lessons, and partnered with their first swim school. Over the past five years Swimages has photographed over 15,000 children and created close to 200,000 underwater images of children of all ages learning to swim.

What We Do?

Swimages creates fantastic underwater photographs of children learning to swim!! We work closely with our swim school partners to fully understand each school’s unique cirriculum, so that we can appropriately and effectively insert underwater photography into each child’s lesson and photograph their latest swimming developmental milestones. Our goal is to create a fun and positive memory of each child’s swim lesson experience, with as little disruption as possible to their learning environment. Studies show that having pictures of your child decorating your home helps to reinforce each child’s sense of belonging and pride. Displaying your child and their accomplishments as art is a very powerful message in self-esteem building.

Products & Pricing

Swimages has developed a full range of unique and exciting products for you to purchase. We offer individual prints; packages of prints; specialty metallic finish products; framed multiple opening wall folios; and fine art canvas prints in all shapes, sizes and quantities. Fully customized pieces are also available upon request.

Equipment & Expertise

Our team of professional underwater photographers has collectively amassed over 50 years of underwater photographic experience. Our images have been used by National Geographic, Harcourt Brace, Monterey Bay Aquarium, O’Neill Wetsuits and numerous magazine publications with both national and local circulations.

Swimages uses the latest digital imaging equipment and techniques to assist our team in creating amazing underwater images even in the most challenging environments. Our cameras have the ability to produce several images per second, enabling us to present a large number of images for each family to chose from in a very short period of time.

How Do You View & Order?

In most cases, a Swimages representatives will be on site to assist you in choosing your images and placing your order 1 week after we photograph your child. Your Swimages will also be available for you to view and purchase online at HYPERLINK "http://www.swimageusa.com" www.swimageusa.com beginning 1 week after we photograph your child and will remain online for 2 weeks only.

What Happens After I Place My Order?

After we receive your order, our production staff goes to work to color correct and crop each Swimage. All Swimages will be packaged and delivered to your swim school on a pre-determined date unless shipping arrangements are made and paid for in advance.

Model Release - What Is It For?

We ask that you sign a model release for your child so we can make the Swimages we create available to your swim school to use for their marketing materials. We guarantee that your child’s name will never appear with their photograph. Your swim school runs such a terrific program, they will really appreciate useage of your child’s Swimages. If you do not consent to your child’s Swimages being used for marketing purposes, you can simply send an email to HYPERLINK "mailto:opt-out@swimageusa.com" opt-out@swimageusa.com and we will delete your child’s photographs so they can never be used after they are printed for you.


Currently, Swimages works with the following swim schools: Almaden Valley Athletic Club, located in San Jose, CA www.avac.us ; Water Babies Swim School, located in Campbell, CA www.waterbabiesswim.org ; Sherman Swim School, located in Lafayette, CA www.shermanswim.com ; Menlo Swim School, located in Menlo Park, CA www.menloswim.com ; Hariett Plummer Aquatic School, located in Lafayette, CA www.harrietplummeraquatics.com

Our Photographers:

Kevin McDonnell

Kevin has been making images most of his life. He has been an avid scuba diver since age 13 and has been photographing underwater for more than 35 years. His underwater and nature work has been published in many magazines for editorial and advertising purposes. His clients include National Geographic, Dive training, Skindiver Magazine, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and Northwest Diver Magazine. Kevin currently teaches underwater photography classes throughout the western United States. He believes that underwater photography is the best way to increase the awareness of the underwater world and thus aid in its protection as a resource. Kevin currently resides in Marina CA where he and his wife run the Swimages business and the McDonnell Photography Studio. To see more of McDonnell Photography please visit our site: mcdonnellphotography.com

Ashley McDonnell

Ashley began to explore her love of photography in college, purely as a hobby. Shortly after her graduation from UCLA in 1998, Ashley completed her scuba instructor certification and fulfilled a dream she’d had since she first learned to dive at 14. As an avid instructor and diver, Ashley discovered that she needed something to do, when diving without students, and began to research underwater photography equipment. As part of that research, Ashley learned about an underwater photography course being taught by Kevin McDonnell, and the rest is history. Years later, Ashley married Kevin and together they have built McDonnell Photography, a full service family portrait studio, located in Marina, CA, and went on to develop their ultra unique Swimages subdivision. Ashley is the creative director and main photographer of McDonnell Photography’s 1st-Year-of-Life and baby product lines, as well as McDonnell Photography and Swimages’ business and marketing director. Ashley lives in Marina, California with her husband Kevin and their two children.

Jason Bradley

While attending school in Santa Barbara, Jason was particularly taken with marine mammals, and to fuel his interest, worked with marine mammal biologists and at Santa Barbara's Marine Mammal Center. As an aspiring field researcher, the camera was as much of an essential tool as the notepad when observing subjects and collecting data. Eventually and overtime, his interests shifted from the library and the lab to the lens and the darkroom. Although he really liked marine science, His love of nature and marine related photography won out. Jason currently works from his home office and studio in Monterey California. This beautiful location has allowed Jason to pursue his passion with opportunities to photograph above and below water. His work has been published and exhibited locally and abroad, in magazines, by research and conservation organization, in books, and in calendars. We are proud to have Jason working with Swimages. Along with our clients we continue to benefit from his exceptional artistry and photographic skills. To see more of Jason’s work visit his web site at. bradleyphotographic.com