Underwater Photography

Warning: treacherous waters are ahead. A dark, cold place where only the brave dare to explore. Recent video projects by photographer and cinematographer Sven Dreesbach create a feeling of icy-cold tension, contrasted by a sense of meditative pleasure. It's a vibe that is best soaked in rather than pontificated upon by some internet writer.

About two years ago, in the spirit of adventure and creativity, I decided I was going to try and photograph the ocean with artificial lighting. I had an image in my head of all the things I’ve seen in daylight hours, with the stark contrast of an illuminated wave against a dark backdrop. A run-of-the-mill day down at the beach certainly wasn’t going to do either.

World-renowned photographer and visual engineer Benjamin Von Wong has done it again. His breathtaking, inspiring photography has taken yet another step and this time for a great cause. According to Von Wong, this is the hardest shoot he has ever pulled off, and one he hopes has the biggest impact. 

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.