International

Photographer Seth Casteel's unique pictures of dogs swimming underwater managed to captivate an international audience, but now he has a new subject: babies.

Casteel has found a remarkable new way to capture images of toddlers at their most playful and pure as they dive down into the deep during their first swimming lesson.

The pictures for his new book, Underwater Babies, reveal adorable babies as they explore the underwater world, chubby-cheeked, curious, mischievous, and playful, all captured in his up-close-and-personal signature style.

His pictures are innovative and take on an air of excitement as the youngsters swim beneath the waves.

Casteel says he was drawn to create his new book, Underwater Babies after hearing of the shocking statistics of the numbers of children that drown.

Kids between one and four have the highest rates of drowning than any group in the nation.

'The book is a celebration of babies, but there's definitely a serious element to it,' Casteel told Today.com.

'A big reason I wanted to make this book is to promote the cause of water safety for babies. I just want to let people know about the benefits of these classes and that they are something to strongly consider.'

He created the book by heading along to water safety classes for babies at swimming pools in ten different states.

He photographed around 750 babies in schools across each of the states to create Underwater Babies, which will be released on April 7.