Fabi Fregonesi's path to becoming one of underwater photography's most decorated newcomers started with a panic attack. Aged 13, on a snorkelling trip in Hawaii, a guide dumped fish food over her — and dozens of fish swarmed the terrified teenager. She avoided the ocean for over a decade.

The turnaround came in 2009, when a friend suggested a diving course before a trip to Fernando de Noronha, Brazil's most famous dive island. Fregonesi, then 24 and living in São Paulo, panicked 10 metres down on her first open-water dive. Skilled instructors talked her through it, and that dive rewired her relationship with the sea.

Photography followed naturally. She wanted to show non-divers what she was seeing, so she started with a Canon G12 compact, moved up to a Canon 5D DSLR, and took private classes with photographers she admired. Her first international competition entry — Underwater Photographer of the Year in early 2024 — landed third place in the wrecks category. Since then she's been highly commended in three editions of DIVE's Big Shot competition and voted the magazine's Biggest Shot of 2025.

The career switch came the hard way. Fregonesi spent more than 18 years at Google after studying marketing and business administration. In 2023, during a snorkelling trip to South Africa's Sardine Run, she was hospitalised with diverticulitis, an intestinal perforation and sepsis — spending 11 days in a South African hospital and hearing doctors say she could die at any moment. Three more crises followed that year, plus intestinal surgery. Fully recovered now, she describes it as a wake-up call: she left Google in mid-2024 to work on underwater photography full time.

Her approach is behaviour-driven storytelling — a sea lion playing with a sea star, mouthbrooding cardinal fish in Lembeh — and she researches destinations heavily before diving them, briefing guides on exactly what she wants to see. Her favourite spots: Galápagos for sheer wild encounters (sharks, sea lions, marine iguanas, mola mola), Lembeh for macro, Raja Ampat for reefs, plus French Polynesia, the Maldives and the Bahamas. She's also tackling underwater panoramas in Fernando de Noronha with her husband, inspired by photographer Martin Broen, and will join Alex Mustard's workshop in Lembeh this September.

Her advice for aspiring underwater shooters is refreshingly unglamorous: become a good diver first, master buoyancy, and put money into skills and teaching rather than kit — she's seen brilliant work shot on compacts. And above all, respect the ocean. Don't stage scenes or move creatures for the shot; let nature come to you.

Why should travellers care? Because Fregonesi's story is proof that the underwater world is open to late starters — even those scared of fish — and that places like Fernando de Noronha, Lembeh and Raja Ampat reward the curious, camera or not.

Photo and interview via Dive Magazine.