Underwater

Dave Sandford is a professional sports photographer from Ontario, whose roots in photography keep him coming back to bodies of water, capturing images that move him personally. What he found close to home in the shallow water of Lake Erie turned out to be some of the most dramatic waves he’d ever seen, and Dave came away with an incredible series of images to share.

If you've ever used a GoPro in the water, you know that just about as soon as you get in, the lens can start to fog up. This is because the air inside the GoPro is relatively warm and gets warmer when using the camera; thus, as soon as you combine this with a colder outside environment, such as water, the camera is cooled and water droplets begin to condense on the inside of the housing. While GoPro makes anti-fog inserts, they aren't exactly cheap at $15 per pack. In this video, Ho Stevie! shows you how to use a simple roll of paper towel to make anti fog inserts for your GoPro.

Leroy Bellet is a 16-year-old freelance surf photographer from Australia who has recently been featured in several major surf publications because of his experimentation with artificial lighting in the water. Using a flash in the water allows the subject to still be illuminated while taking advantage of times when the natural light is most unique, like early morning, sunset, and night. We recently got the chance to talk to Leroy and learn a little bit about him and his technique.

Keith Ellenbogen is an underwater photographer whose work centers on marine conservation, while Allan Adams is a theoretical physicist whose work revolves around fluid dynamics inside black holes. When they met at a party in 2013, they realized they could combine their talents to produce gorgeous video of some of nature's most interesting marine life.

A simple Google search will turn up millions of results on what photographers should do/not do when working with models. However, nine times out of ten, these articles are written from a photographer’s perspective, and the model’s voice is rarely heard. Well, today is your lucky day! I have jumped in to give you the model perspective! Whether you are shooting underwater, commercial, fashion, conceptual, etc., some of the same rules of etiquette apply across the board.

When people think of visiting the Everglades, wading around neck deep, alligator infested waters isn't exactly what most folks have in mind. For Florida-born photographer Mac Stone, this is what he calls his office. Stone has been steadily developing his work in conservation, particularly of wetlands. He recently gave a compelling speech at a TedTalks event, discussing not only his evocative work but importance of the wild areas he works in.

Freelance videomaker and visual artist Julianna Thomas did something unique recently: she shot an entire series of black and white subjects, but in color. As a response to one of her greatest pet peeves, Thomas created "Black & White In Color" as a "personal response to treating black and white as an editing afterthought."

It's a photo so ubiquitous that if you type "iceberg photo" into Google, it's the first two image results. And the sixth. And the tenth. Ralph Clevenger's iconic photo of an iceberg's tip peeking out from the water while the substantial body of it remains below has graced countless publications, from full-page magazine advertisements commissioned by major corporations to the ever-famous "Imagination" motivational poster. It's a photo that is so famous that it's been copied, stolen, manipulated, parodied, and imitated an innumerable number of times over its nearly twenty-year existence. It's even made rounds on the internet as a hoax that Snopes picked up.

Earlier in the week, we shared Michael Dyrlands, HAZMAT Surfing photo series. To recap, HAZMAT Surfing is a photo series that gives a futuristic look at what surfing could be like twenty to twenty-five years down the road and spreads awareness of our oceans contamination. Dyrland came up with the idea after he was unable to enter the water on a trip to LA because of ten billion gallons of run off that had polluted the ocean after an evening of heavy rain. Dyrland has now released a video version of HAZMAT Surfing, which continues to spread awareness of the contamination of our oceans.

When I first looked at placing my camera into the water I noticed that there was a lot of different options. The most practical and safe method was the big and very expensive dive housings that are used for scuba diving. The cheapest, most dangerous option was the little plastic zip lock bag-type housings that can be found on eBay for $100. I wanted something that would not break the bank, but would also be safe enough that I could put in an expensive DSLR plus a lens, and trust it would be safe. These stipulations are what brought me to the Outex underwater housing.

Just last week, GoPro announced a new a camera in their ever-expanding lineup of action-POV cameras. The new camera is called the HERO4 Session, and as Doug Sonders posted last week, it's smaller and lighter than the previous series of HERO cameras. In this video review, WIRED's Brent Rose takes the Session out on several different adventures, comparing it to the HERO4 Silver along the way.

Rob Hammer knows all about stories, adventure, and experience. He is a San Diego-based commercial shooter. He has worked for many clients such as Nike, Adidas, Foot Locker, and Under Armour. If you have a chance to follow his Instagram feed, you'll probably find images of him backpacking in a foreign country, photographing old barbershops in the Midwest, or hiking up a mountain with his friends enjoying a cold beer. He lives the life that he photographs. I believe that shooting what you love will ensure you to always have a steady stream of good clients. But when you are photographing your own lifestyle, the possibilities are endless.

Yesterday was World Oceans Day (it's okay if you missed it; you can make up for it today) and to celebrate, Google released an amazing new feature powered by its popular Street View technology: Street View Oceans. Working with a number of scientists and researchers, Google mapped well over 50 unique experiences around the world with GPS data to give the public access to the amazing life under the sea as well as to help track its growth and/or recession for scientific study.

I baby my external hard drives. I always wrap them in bubble wrap when taking them from home to the coffee shop, and I even have a little mini-pelican case for longer trips. I couldn't imagine how bad it would be if it happened to get even a quick salt water splash, let alone get stuck in the sand. In this video, watch what happens when this G-Tech hard drive is thrown right into the surf of the ocean.

As if you didn't already have enough competition as a photographer it now seems the animal kingdom is trying to get a piece of our pie. In New Zealand there is an Octopus named Rambo, trained and equipped by Sony, to do your job. World, meet the first Octographer.

Ray Collins lives in the Australian town of Bulli, a sleepy, drab mining town south of Sydney. The punishing work a mile underground left Collins with a broken body and busted knees, so it was time for a career change. Purchasing a camera with his severance, Collins decided to tackle a new perspective to underwater photography. The cleansing salt water which had originally washed off the dust of a long day in the mine was now his new office. In a short seven years, Collins made the change from "subterranean" to "submariner" and hasn't looked back. His story is perhaps testament in chasing your passion no matter how seemingly absurd it may be.

Morgan Maassen is a blossoming surf photographer with many notable photography achievements under his belt at the ripe and youthful age of 24 years old. Already nailing covers for some of the industry's most recognizable magazines, Maassen has made a name for himself and his unique photographic style in the surfing world. Maassen's work often borders the line between an ethereal, dreamlike universe and a sharp contrasted reality of life on the water. Fstoppers had an opportunity to sit down with Maassen and ask him a few questions about how he got to where he is, what inspires him, and how he approaches underwater photography on a daily basis.

YouTubers The Slow Mo Guys have produced some really fun and lovely footage over the past couple years. Whether they're filming paint on a speaker, a fire breather, or firing a pistol underwater at 27,000 FPS, these guys know how to create some beautiful and beautifully hilarious videos. This time they've shot ink being dropped in water at 1,000 FPS, in luscious 4K, and have ended up with some pretty amazing results.

As a photographer, my skill set is constantly put to the test. In most cases, I’m handed an idea on a slab of wood and the mission is to hand that idea translated to a tangible artifact back to my client on a silver platter. It’s never an easy process, but it’s a part of my job.

Willow Creek is what Sven Dreesbach calls a “proof of concept and workflow” for an eventual surf film he’d like to make – but, as it stands, it’s a short film that achieves a lot in its own right. Shot with an iPhone 5s and color-graded using Davinci Resolve, Dreesbach produced a very moving piece of cinema that has an erie but mystical vibe to it - thanks in part to the Ry X track Shortline accompanying the film. Sven was gracious enough to talk with Fstoppers a bit about the hows and whys behind crafting this stunning short film.

Nikon takes us behind the scenes of their recent "I Am Different" documentary series with Clark Little, a professional shorebreak photographer. Clark gives a little insight on how he uses his Nikon gear in what could be arguably be the most challenging and dangerous environments. Outfitted with Aquatech housing, Clark uses his Nikon D4S for its lightning-fast focusing and high frame rate to capture that perfect moment each time a wave breaks.

What happens when you dream of a surreal image that beckons you to recreate it as a photograph? For Canon Explorer of Light, Tyler Stableford, it meant heading to Mexico in search of whale sharks, with an underwater model, ready to face the challenges that laid ahead of them them in an effort to create an image that was as compelling as it was personally rewarding.

Drones are probably the hottest gadgets in the photography industry this year. We see them being used for commercial aerial shoots, for news coverage, for wedding photography and, well, just for fun. The guys at 'Earth Touch' recently decided to see if they can create a drone that instead of going up to the sky, will be able to go down under the water. After planning on paper, they executed their idea and built a fully functional underwater 'drone' submarine. Check out the BTS and the final result.

Last month we shared a really impressive project of an underwater shoot in Bali done by my friend and conceptual photographer Benjamin Von Wong. He stated then that was only part one and that part two would be coming soon. Well, soon is here and he's sharing more technical aspects of how he made the project come to life.

Photographer Karen Glaser is best described as a photographer of water. Declining to be “pigeonholed,” Glaser pulls from the genres of landscape, underwater, fine art, street, and documentary photography in her approach to capturing the complicated, beautiful, and diverse aquatic landscapes of Florida.

Clark Little captures the unique beauty inside of and looking through powerful Hawaiian shorebreak waves. In 2007 he told his wife not to bother buying a picture of the local shorebreak she brought home. He instead went out to create one himself. Being a surfer, he was already confident getting out in the thick of it.

In a rather raw video posted to Youtube earlier today, a man jumps off some rocks and into the water only to find his friends screaming, "Shark!" behind him. Captured from a GoPro he attached before jumping in, this video gives us get a pretty good POV glimpse of what that would feel like. What would you do in that situation?

I've had some pretty amazing experiences in my life. Fstoppers.com has given me incredible opportunities like meeting Bon Jovi, or riding in the first Lamborghini Aventador in America. Our international workshop last week took a year of planning and insane amounts of stress. On top of it all, I had the flu during the entire week. Even still, last week was the most rewarding week of my life.

Lowepro’s new DryZone bags come in two different models, a 40-Liter backpack (40L) and a 20-Liter duffel (20L). Lowepro has been making bags for years, and these are a new entry into their DryZone series. These new bags have an IPX6 waterproof rating, which means they can take a significant amount of water blasted onto them and keep your kit dry. Think rappelling through a waterfall or taking on some white water rapids in a small boat. This review will focus solely on my experiences with the 20L and how well it performed.

The likelihood of this experience ever happening to you is pretty small, however, while you may never make the same mistakes I made, this story is a reflection of the stupid decisions that tend to tag along with us as people. The same warnings and lessons that I'm about to share apply to everyone.

For over a year and a half now, David Reynolds has been filming his "budget" series of short films called The Underwater Realm. Each week he and his team release a behind the scenes video on how they overcome some technical aspect of filming (previous Fstoppers posts here). This week Eve explains how he tackled the challenge of making a small diving pool appear like an infinite ocean using something other than green screen. If this is what is required on a budget, I can't imagine what the full blown productions look like!

Elena Kalis's underwater photos are incredible. I have seen many photographers try this and it just never seems to turn out right. There is always something about the shots I wont like but that could easily just be me being picky. However, when it come to Elena Kalis's underwater photography, I cant look away.

One thing I love about the Gopro Hero 2 cameras is that normal, everyday people can record amazing footage that has never been seen before. Such is the case with Mark Peters who thought he was just going to film some albacore tuna during his fishing trip. Little did Mark know what his GoPro would capture inside his homemade underwater torpedo.

Emma is a 14-foot long tiger shark living in the Bahamas. And she steals expensive cameras. While a film crew was shooting a documentary called Shark Obsession, Emma swiped $15,000 worth of equipment. Fortunately, she dropped the 30 pounds of gear soon after and it remained undamaged. Unfortunately, her camera wasn't rolling at the time.

Join the MacGillivrays of One World One Ocean as they take you under the sea and into 'inner space' to document NASA's NEEMO 16 mission (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations). Aquanauts are sent to Aquarius (the world's only undersea laboratory) to live underwater for two weeks which can simulate living on a space station.

Since he posted this image on his facebook profile, Shawn Heinrich's image has drawn a lot of attention. Many have stated the the shot is just a little too perfect to have happened all at once. Upon first glance, what do you think?