Photo of the Week: September 13, 2010

Hi Gang!

In last week’s POTW write up I mentioned that I had recently been diving in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, and that while there I had enjoyed an opportunity to swim with some whale sharks. Those dives took place in the plankton-filled, green water in Bahia de Los Angeles. This week’s POTW is an image of one of those whale sharks.

This photograph illustrates a very important point about diving and underwater photography, and that is the following: Getting good wide-angle shots underwater does not mean that you need great visibility or blue water.

The visibility in Bahia de Los Angeles was in the neighborhood of 20 feet. We were swimming with some relatively small whale sharks- if there is such a thing- and the plankton-filled water was on the green side. It helped that I was working so close to the surface on a sunny day, meaning I had a lot of bright natural light to work with, but the key to making this picture was getting very close to my subject.

I used a fisheye lens for this shot, and my best guess is that I was less than three feet from the shark’s pectoral fin. Being so close enabled me to shoot through relatively little water, and even when the water was filled with plankton I was able to capture a good shot that I could use and feel good about as this week’s POTW.

The use of strobes might have made things more difficult because with so much particulate in the water column I might have introduced some backscatter, but I was sans strobes. I made the choice to leave my strobes on the boat knowing that they would likely introduce backscatter, and they would certainly slow me down when I was trying to swim to keep up with a whale shark.

The points that I would like to emphasize for other photographers are (1) while it might not be as easy to create great images in green water, or water that is filled with particulate, it is possible; so, when nature throws you an unexpected curve in terms of reduced visibility, don’t give in or give up; instead, grab your camera and make some pictures, and (2) that said, it sure is nice to go diving with Captain Steve in the clear, blue water off Maui! The truth is that there have been times when I was diving with Captain Steve in Maui and the vis was “down” to 60 feet or so. On some of those occasions I have heard people complain about the “bad vis”. There are people that would kill to dive in 60-foot vis! If you think about all the great pictures we have seen that come from water from southern California to northern Canada there isn’t any question that a lot of them have been shot in water where the visibility was much less than 60 feet. It can be done!

I hope you enjoy this week’s POTW, and that you will forgive me for getting on my soapbox about photography in limited visibility. It is something I feel strongly about as a photo instructor, so I took the opportunity to express myself. I do feel better now!

See you next week!

Marty