Aquadog
After shooting an underwater babies session, we chucked in a pet dog.
After shooting an underwater babies session, we chucked in a pet dog.
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Nov, 2017Views
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Awards
Legendary Award
People's Choice in Pets Speed Series Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Image Of The Month Photo Contest Vol 28
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Superior Skill
Genius
Virtuoso
All Star
Top Ranks
Top 30 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
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Behind The Lens
Location
I photographed underwater babies for 10 years in a small, purpose built indoor pool. Throughout that time, there was a constant challenge to have the water crystal clear for photographic sessions. The pool's filters needed to work hard, at least overnight to clean away the debris of the previous day's regular baby swimming classes with lots of babies, their parents, or grandparents shedding skin, make-up and other 'pollutants', making the water cloudy. Because of this obsession with cleanliness, I was taken aback when at the end of one session, I was presented with two dogs and told, "We want to get some shots of them in the water". Dogs generally love water, so I thought it was a great idea and we proceeded to chuck them in.Time
This part of the shoot happened after several hours photographing around a hundred babies and their mothers.Lighting
Underwater photography is often undertaken by people with a Scuba diving background, who typically go about things as they would when photographing marine life. I come from an advertising and portrait photography background, so my approach to lighting underwater subjects is untypical. For me, having a small light source close to the baby would not produce the best visual result. I preferred to simulate daylight, and use studio flash from above the water. Safety is all important of course. Water and electricity don't mix, so all of the lights needed to be well away and well secured to avoid the risk of splashing and falling into the pool. The plus side of using studio lighting, which was a combination of softboxes and one more directional light, was that you can get beautiful modelling and an even spread throughout the view. But the downside is the flash needs a good second to recharge. This means only one exposure is possible for each submersion. You can't safely keep a baby underwater for longer than that. As long as they were happy, the babies were rotated to each have 6 good submersions, being released and retrieved by well-trained instructors. Now, dogs are different. We could afford to be more 'brutal' with them, as their swimming capabilities are completely instinctive. Something to be aware of photographing in water: the more light passes through it, the bluer the image, so if you want good skin tones, some adjustment is necessary in post production. This can result in hair and eyes looking red, so those colours will need to be individually restored. Your lens will need to be fairly wide angled to compensate for the water's magnification effect, and the need to be close to avoid looking through too much cloudiness.Equipment
The camera was a Sony A58 with a 20mm f 2.8 lens at f9. Flash Broncolor triggered by a Minolta flash head pointed away from the subject inside a Ewa Marine waterproof housing. There was no need for me to be submerged, as the camera has a tilting live view screen and being just under the surface was deep enough to get the shots I wanted. The pool was shallow enough for me to be standing on the bottom.Inspiration
See aboveEditing
See aboveIn my camera bag
Usually Nikon with a cropped sensor with a range of 3 zoom lenses covering 17mm to 200mm. In this case, the camera was a Sony A58 with a fixed 20mm lens.Feedback
Be aware things will happen quickly.
