UW Photography
PhotoStop: What Underwater Photography Should Be About
"That's a wonderful picture, you must be an expert at Photoshop". Is that the ultimate insult to a photographer? It is to me. I like to think of myself as an underwater photographer. My perfect dive would be to descend, absorb the site's ambiance, discover the definitive subject, visualize the image I want, take one perfect photograph, and ascend, breathing the last puff of Nitrox from my tank as I reach for the dive boat ladder. I believe that a photo that comes straight out of the camera (preferably on film) is superior to one that has been photoshopped. Not only visually superior, morally superior! So when a photo of violinist and underwater model Leigh Paine, that I had successfully shot to promote a future concert, was published on page 3 of The Cairns Post, I was elated. It looked great; half a page in full colour. But the comments that greeted me praised my prowess at Photoshop, not photography. They thought I had faked it. I was mortified. I own a camera; I do not own Photoshop. I do not digitally remove backscatter; I strive to shoot pictures without backscatter. I do not care that "to photoshop" is now a recognised verb. I use technique and skill with my camera whenever I shoot pictures. That has to be worthier. Unfortunately I can find no philosophical rationale to defend my conviction. Let me explain. If you have studied modern art, you may know of French painter René Magritte. In 1929 he completed a painting called "The Treachery of Images". The painting was of a smoker's pipe and on the painting he wrote, under the pipe, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." Which translates to, "This is not a pipe." He was making the point that images should not be confused with reality. An image is an image and... More »
Deep Breath: Professional v Amateur
My family and I love going on holiday. Who doesn’t? My wife went with some girlfriends to the Costa Brava. They had a great time. They sunbathed, they ate some fine meals, they drank probably too much, and they had a lot of laughs. I went to the Maldives. I enjoyed myself, I ate some fine meals, had a lot of laughs, but I was not there on holiday. I have got a great job. A successful dentist friend of mine, just taking delivery of his brand new Aston Martin, told me that his real ambition was to change careers and become an ‘inspector of tropical dive sites’. That’s more or less the job I’ve got, and I ride a pushbike. He takes dentistry very seriously. He is good at what he does and he obviously enjoys it. If he were not good, he’d soon be out of business. It’s the same if you travel the world going diving, taking photographs and writing about it. You have to approach it with a professional mindset or you’d soon be out of business. When you are surrounded by people who are on holiday, it’s important not to lose focus on why you are there. No one wants to hear that you simply had a good time. Where are the results? Now you may think that I do a lousy job. That’s your privilege. I’m always interested to hear how I can do better. No one is more insecure than someone trying to keep up a standard. I can assure you that to compete with all the other contributors to magazines, you have to do the job professionally. Some years ago, I travelled across the world to the Solomon Islands to do a feature for a magazine. I found myself sitting next to one of the paying... More »
Is there a disconnect between DAN’s Mission/Vision Statements and the content of Alert Diver magazine?
The new quarterly Alert Diver, published by Stephen Frink and company, unarguably is a handsome magazine that makes its prior incarnation appear a bit of an ugly stepsister. Then again, it now appears to have a lot more money to play with. But, is it straying from DAN’s stated raison d'être? The DAN Mission/Vision Statements can be read in full here, but I’ll highlight the most relevant content below (bold script mine): [View the issue online here, or perhaps first go here and choose the digital edition in upper right corner -- DSE, webmaster] - “About DAN: Divers Alert Network (DAN) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit medical and research organization dedicated to the safety and health of recreational scuba divers and associated with Duke University Medical Center (DUMC).” - “Founded in 1980, DAN has served as a lifeline for the scuba industry by operating diving's only 24-hour emergency hotline, a lifesaving service for injured divers. Additionally, DAN operates a diving medical information line, conducts vital diving medical research, and develops and provides a number of educational programs for everyone from beginning divers to medical professionals.” - “DAN's Mission Statement: DAN helps divers in need with medical emergency assistance and promotes diving safety through research, education, products and services.” - “DAN's Vision Statement: Striving to make every dive, accident- and injury-free.” In the above material I was unable to find any description of DAN’s/Diver Alert magazine’s role in advancing u/w photographic skills, travel location reviews, marine conservation, dive gear and the like. Yet, the current Spring 2010 edition, while admittedly including a number of diving safety and medicine pieces, is filled with such off-topic articles, several of them Feature pieces. For example: Photography (the most egregious examples): Pushing the Envelope (Three Advanced Photo Techniques Taught by Pros Who Perfected Them), pp 68-75 Imaging, pp 76-87 Travel: Anacapa Island, California, pp 24-25 Alger... More »
Be-Brief
In July I was fortunate enough to yet again venture along the Great Barrier Reef north of Cairns and out into the Coral Sea. I've made this cruise several times on various boats including Mike Ball's Spoilsport, the private Super Yacht Bullish, the now sadly missed Nimrod and Underwater Explorer, and this time on Taka. I have had a wonderful time on all these vessels. Professional crew, seaworthy and comfortable boats, fine food and company and extraordinary diving, with useful DIVE briefings, are standard. But on all except Bullish I had to endure SAFETY briefings, and they are often too long, tedious and worse still, sometimes inaccurate. I have a feeling that many divers at dive destinations and on dive boats around the world get as frustrated as I do. Are safety briefings necessary? Well yes, some things do need to be said, such as the particular emergency and diving procedures on individual vessels. I have just read the guidelines from Queensland Health and Safety in the Workplace, and amazingly they do NOT require many of the restrictions or rules proclaimed. Buddy diving is recommended but Solo Diving CAN take place. Not everyone wants to solo dive but if someone does there should be a simple procedure whereby a diver is able to. It is not convincing to be told it is forbidden, only to see the crew solo diving when their dive guide duties are over. So make it legitimate - it is NOT "against the law". Spoilsport, for example, has a Solo Diving option for Experienced Divers who have their own pony bottle. Many underwater photographers prefer to solo dive - I do when not using a model - and frankly it is much safer for me to be alone with my pony bottle than buddy with a less experienced... More »
PaparaSea
My model was in tears. She had surfaced full of joy after her first ever dive with manta rays but back on the boat a couple of underwater photographers had growled at her. "You are a manta-chaser! Stay on the bottom next time!" Her joy turned into remorse. It was my fault. I should have made it clear that we were going to hang around on the bottom and let the mantas come to us. I had taught Leigh how to position herself with Potato Cod, turtles, sea jellies and schools of jacks to get close and dramatic interactions, but failed to emphasise that with wild mantas in the Western Pacific it is best to stay still and let the mantas come to you. We were diving Manchurian Pass at Eastern Fields in PNG's Coral Sea from adventurer Craig de Wit's famous dive boat Golden Dawn. Mantas are regularly seen on the outside of the pass where they swim along a narrow ridge at 20 m. A sandy lagoon runs one side of the ridge, and a deep wall along the other. We were diving, parallel to each other, either side of the top of the ridge and I imagined that if we encountered a manta I would be able to shoot the manta passing between us, and get Leigh and the manta in the same shot. Caught up in the action, I did not see Craig signalling divers to stay low. Being an Old Salt I have developed my own unique set of "Rules For Diving" that have helped me survive and prosper underwater. "Never Dive Deeper Than Your IQ (Imperial units)" is a favourite, though I do add 10 ft. depth for every 1000 dives experienced. "Treat Every Dive As A Decompression Dive" is another, and, especially in the early days when... More »
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