So You Wanna Be An Underwater Photographer?

 

Underwater photography has become such an affordable hobby now. From the old days of big expensive housing (my Ikelite housing for the G10 is almost twice the volume of the camera itself), the size of the housing (and the price tag) has reduced significantly in the last couple of years. The digital age has also made photography in general far more accessible to the masses.

Photos are an excellent way to remember the wonderful marine life that you saw underwater. One of the most annoying thing about fish identification is.. well, identifying them! Hands up if this has happened to you before:

Diver 1: "Did you see that beautiful fish?" 
Diver 2: "Which one?" 
Diver 1: "The one that was colourful, beautiful and had fins" 
Diver 2: "..."

Being able to take a picture of the marine life that you enjoyed so much, allows you to permanently capture it and then trying to identify it during surface interval. And of course, there's the favourite saying of "if you haven't got a picture or video of you, you really didn't see it". That's my favourite saying to divers who tell me about the whale shark or manta ray that they say and I didn't. 

With the increasing number of divers jumping in with cameras of all sorts, a scrimmage of sorts have formed underwater, to the extent of divers becoming upset with one another because of poor etiquette. This could be about dropping in on another photographer's shot (that's right, photo bombing), silting up due to bad buoyancy, hogging the shot, etc. There's a whole range of things you could do to be a responsible underwater photographer.

Buoyancy control: A "smoke out" effect might be cool for a photo of a wedding march in, but it just isn't the same thing with fishes emerging from a cloud of silt that you stirred up. I've seen a great number of divers who would hold their cameras with one hand, and use the other hand to hold on to the bottom or part of the coral (and perhaps damaging the coral in the process). Holding the camera with just hand just doesn't give you the stability to get an excellent shot. My friend Vie takes the most beautiful pictures (to me at least) with his old Canon G9 with no strobe. When I asked him how he does it, his reply was simply "Just hold the camera with two hands. It's just more stable that way". If you have a setup with strobe/s, there's no way that you'd be able to use just one hand because of the weight, plus you'd need your hands to adjust the position of the strobe/s. Ok, so you might kneel down for stability, but what there are corals or other marine life in the way? Well, there are divers who don't can't be bothered as long as they get their shot. The value of good buoyancy simply cannot be overstated. It offers you a stable platform without damaging the marine life or the bottom. Approach and leave the scene as the same way you saw it. 

Your Fins Aren't Wings: Only winged animals flutter, so when you're finning around the subject where the bottom is particularly delicate (eg. silty), do use the frog kick. When you frog kick, the water is propelled backwards, as compared to the downward propulsion of the flutter kick. Once the water is silted up, it was would some time before it settles, and you should know that silt absolutely ruins pictures because they get illuminated by the strobe or camera's flash. Be considerate to other photographers. 

Part of the fun and challenge of taking photos, is trying to take the best shot in spite of the conditions. Years ago when Kat and I were diving in Manado, I was trying to take a shot of a crab in a really difficult position. It was clinging on to the soft coral and was naturally trying to hide. Maybe our guide felt sorry for me (or just got impatient with my incompetence), he proceeded to uproot the coral so that he could present it to me at a better angle. Kat and I were shocked. We appreciated his enthusiasm but it was overzealous though. The marine environment doesn't exist for our pleasure. We are simply guests of their environment, and as responsible divers, we ought to leave them as they are. It's not just about your enjoyment alone, other divers should the chance to appreciate them. 

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Keep in mind that you're not the only person that feels that your subject is beautiful. There may be other photographers who have yet to get a good shot of the subject, so do be considerate not to disturb the subject. A friend of mine told me this story about how they were trying to get a picture of the mola mola or sunfish in Bali. As they didn't want to frighten it away, they kept their distance while continuing to get a good shot. Then another diver swam right up to the fish, shoved the camera in its face, snapped the photo and the firing strobe frightened the fish away. When they were topside, she was going around showing off her picture of the mola's eye. Suffice to say, nobody was terribly interested even to speak to her after the incident, much less look at the picture. 

Don't Be A Hog: Especially with macro stuff, chances are that you would have to take turns within the group of photographers to get a shot. Keep in mind that everyone is on the clock, so make full use of your turn to get the best of what the opportunity offers you. You may not get your "money shot", but there are others who are waiting for their turn. You're not the only one who wants pictures.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it's the basic that you should observe. And because everyone might have their peculiarities, do discuss with the other photographers about the plan underwater, and I'm sure that everyone would be happily sharing their photos as even tips during surface interval.

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Diving In A Drysuit: A Tropical Experience

Great capture! Picture taken from Santi Italy's Facebook

At the recent ADEX, Living Seas displayed the drysuits from Fourth Element, as well as Santi ones at the Living Seas-Santi booth, and the most common question we got was "Isn't it too warm to dive in a drysuit in the tropics? You guys do that??". There were just as many curious visitors who came up to look at the suits, and have a feel of it. 

I got my first drysuit three years ago after finding out that I have to dive in one if I wanted to take the GUE Cave 1 course in Mexico. A group of our local GUE divers had then just returned after completing their Cave 1 course, and their feedback was that the long hours in the water necessitated the need for a drysuit. With the US dollar still strong at that time, I decided to go for a then new entrant to the local market, the Polish brand, Santi. After getting measured up, I waited for another month or two and it had arrived. After cutting the wrist and neck latex seals to the appropriate width that would suit me, I was ready to go.

Undergarments. Before I could dive with it, I had to pick up undergarments to go with the drysuit. When I was told that one reason why I needed undergarment was to keep me warm, I was like "Come on, are you kidding? I'm already wearing a drysuit in the tropics, how am I gonna get cold?". Well, just like a wetsuit, with increasing exposure (time in water) and variable water temperature, there's a good chance that I could get cold. Then there's the issue of keeping dry.. not from the water, but from your perspiration. 

A complete set of undergarments set me back another couple of hundred bucks, and I decided on the Fourth Element (that was before Living Seas became the distributor) based on the recommendations of the divers. Initially, I felt that pulling on the long sleeve top and full legging bottom undergarment.. well, just felt a bit excessive when everyone was running around in their swimmers. I decided to try my first dive in just a dry-fit tee shirt and a pair of board shorts. I felt perfectly fine when I was diving in it, but when I opened up the zipper, I was soaked from my perspiration. Mind you, I wasn't overheating because I felt perfectly comfortably. We do perspire even when we're diving in a wetsuit, it's just that we don't notice it. So results from the first dive without proper undergarment: fail. The dryfit wasn't keeping me dry because it just wasn't able to wick the moisture from my skin quick enough. The subsequent dives were done in my Fourth Element Xerotherm, and I was both comfortably warm and importantly, dry after the dive. You might feel a bit of a damp feeling falling down to your feet as you open up the zipper, but that's just the condensation when the air inside of your wetsuit comes in contact with the ambient air. 

Floaty Feet. Ah yes... "floaty feet". The bane of many new drysuit owners. While researching on drysuit diving, I'd read plenty about divers using gaiters around their shins to prevent the air in the drysuit from getting into the boots, hence throwing the diver head first, or over-trimming. The reason why you would need to put air into your drysuit is prevent the ambient pressure from squeezing the suit against your body. Put in just enough to avoid the squeeze, and remember to dump the air (from the exhaust valve on your arm) as it expands when you're ascending. I don't use my suit as an inflation device: buoyancy control is done via my wing. My rationale for that is.. well, why is the air in a jacket more difficult to dump compared to a wing? Because of the cutting and shape, it tends to trap air pockets. Similarly, the air might be stuck at different parts of your suit, so managing your buoyancy via your wing would be the most efficient. The more air you have in your suit, the higher the possibility of the air getting to your boots if you're not careful.

I've read so much about "floaty feet" and how to deal with it, but nothing beats actually experiencing it yourself. It felt like the boot and foot pocket of my fins suddenly getting roomier. Coming off trim and straightening one leg at a time helps bring the air to your torso again (there are other methods too). But I had no idea what that feeling was when it first happened to me, and just like a runaway ascent, I found myself floating uncontrollably, feet first. It was a very humbling experience for me because I hadn't had an uncontrolled ascent since my Open Water days. Fortunately, it was at a depth of about 5 metres and in a sheltered part of the island where no boats could enter. I've heard about divers whose fin had popped off their foot, forced off by the expanding air pocket in the boot. Be sure to know how to dump the air out your suit, and yes, always check that your dump valve is open. 

Answering nature's call. Speaking of valves, there's another valve that is just as critical that you check to make sure that it's opened, and that's the pee valve. Unlike a wetsuit, there's just no way for you to pee in your drysuit, so you've gotta hold your pee until it's time to surface, swim back, get your gear off, run to the nearest toilet, get your suit off, then comes relief. Fortunately, there's the pee valve. The alternative to the pee valve is to wear adult diapers. Without going into too much details, the pee valve is at the end of a tube that you pee into via a catheter, while women use a device called the "she-pee". I gotta say that peeing in a drysuit can be an unnerving feeling the first time because of the fear that an accident may happen, but you'll get used to it. As they say, if you've gotta go, you gotta go. 

Why dive dry? So with all these things to look out for, what bother diving in a drysuit? I'll share with you the ad for a brand of drysuit: in the picture, there were 2 log books, one really thin one, and another one which was really thick. Under the thin one, it read "log of dives done in a wetsuit", and under the thick one, it read "log of dives done in a drysuit". And that's really true. With a drysuit, you can literally dive anywhere around the world, and all you have to be is to wear a thicker set of undergarments, a hood and a pair of dry gloves when diving in cold water. When I dive in the tropics with my drysuit, I just use a set of thin undergarment, which not only wicks the moisture away from my body when I'm diving, the undergarment is also cool enough to be worn during surface interval. Because of the fact that you're wet after diving in a wetsuit, chances are you'll be feeling cold, whereas with a drysuit, you'll be feeling perfectly comfortable.

My rationale for diving dry is simply.. why not? It may be a bit of a learning curve diving dry initially, but once you get used to it, you'll be able to dive in just about anywhere in the world. A friend of mine who dives dry was teasing us about struggling to put on our wetsuits while she was able to slip in and out of her drysuit quickly and easily. I know there are many divers who prefer diving in just a rash guard and shorts, but I like to be prepared for a situation when thermal protection or being well covered becomes a necessity and not just a hassle. 

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