tiger_in_teapot
FollowKuata island, Fiji.
Kuata island, Fiji.
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Awards
Top Shot Award 22
Contest Finalist in Social Exposure Photo Contest Vol 25
Contest Finalist in Covers Photo Contest Volume5
Editor's Choice
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Magnificent Capture
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo on my trip to Fiji - the diving is amazing there!Time
We had to wake up really early and take a long trip on the boat to get to the spot where this amazing shark dive takes place. The went underwater around midday, which is the worst time for photography on land, but perfect for underwater photography. You have plenty of light so you don’t have to bump up you iso and you don’t completely lose the colors and the water diffuses the light so it’s not that harsh.Lighting
Lighting is the most challenging subject in underwater photography. The water diffuses the light and you are losing reds the deeper you go. On certain depths it becomes impossible to recover the original covers if you didn’t shoot with strobes. Luckily this dive was is really shallow waters, no deeper than 8 meters - so the colors still looked gorgeous!Equipment
My underwater setup is Sony A9 with 16-35mm F4 lens in a Nauticam housing. A9 is perfect for capturing fast moving sealife and a wide angle lens is great for large sudjects like these sharks!Inspiration
I love scuba diving and underwater photography and I love all kinds of sealife - especially whales, turtles and sharks! I have seen a lot of reef sharks before but when I heard I could see the feeding of giant bull sharks I knew I had to do it! It was absolutely spectacular to see those amazing creatures swimming so close to me and to be able to capture it on the camera.Editing
Processing of underwater photos relies heavily on fixing the white balance, that’s why it’s an absolute must to shoot in RAW. I had to push the warmth and tint of the photo significantly to make it look like what I’ve seen with my eyes.In my camera bag
When I’m not shooting underwater I normally have two cameras in my bag - Sony A7R3 with 24-70 F2.8 or 16-35 F2.8 for landscapes and Sony A9 with 70-300 F4.5-5.6 for action shots. I always have on me a little tabletop RRS tripod just in case and a Tree Legged Thing Brian if I know I’ll need a big tripod.Feedback
Professional underwater photography is a commitment. The underwater housings for pro cameras and bulky and expensive, you have to have an advanced scuba license to have the skills to operate one while diving cause there is a lot going on underwater apart of you wanting to take pictures! But these days if you want to just try it out and bring home some memories you can always just have a gopro with you and don’t worry about the hustle! The question is how deep you want to go into that (pun intended ;)))