Underwater Photography

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.  

Via: A Photo Editor

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?

Zak Noyle is one of the world's most respected surf photographers, and in this two-part documentary by RedBull, we get a fascinating glimpse into his world. From his photographic mission and technique to the training that he undergoes to be able to stay afloat in some of the world's largest surf, this mini-doc has it all.

Our good friend Blair Bunting is at it again. This time Blair was hired to shoot the ad campaign for The Discovery Channels hit show River Monsters. The concept was relatively simple; to have the show’s host Jeremy Wade wrestling a giant fish in the shallow waters near South Beach, Florida. To do this Blair's team used a fake fish that was then replaced in post.

Hasselblad Master, Joao Carlos, was featured on the Profoto Blog last week for his free falling studio images. That's right, studio images. Not underwater images. I met Joao in NYC last fall at PDN PhotoPlus and fell in love with his portfolio right away. He always lights his subjects with a minimalist approach and his workflow is powerful and consistent.  

Surfing photographer Chris Burkard spends his days traveling to some of the planet’s most magnificent beaches, where he navigates all sorts of technical complications in search of the perfect surfing shot.

This viral video is not as boring as the title of it leads you to believe. With over 3 million views and growing, videographer Juuso Mettälärecords records two fishermen fishing under ice, upside down. This was shot in a beautiful lake in Saarijärvi in Vaala, Finland. The effect is visually impressive.

Inspired by Google's street view, Honda Civic is launching their 2012 campaign by creating an interactive 360 degree online experience that will let viewers explore unique environments that have never been seen before. This behind the scenes video is just a peek at what is to come and so far it is pretty awesome.

Now this is clever. Victorinox makes a few fragrances and wanted to create an interactive video that shows just how fresh their perfume makes you feel. So they sent a crew up to Cauma Lake in Flims/Laax, Switzerland to film a 360 degree video UNDERWATER! To capture 360 video footage they used the new Yellowbird camera which works a lot like the Google streetview car.

A few months back I posted a video created by the team at The Underwater Realm showing how they created waterproof hotlights to be used on their feature film that is currently under production. Their entire movie is planned to take place underwater and the shots will be a combination of real underwater footage and studio work.

So I am going through some of the slow-mo HD camera options that are on the market right now for an adventure I will be taking soon, and I stumbled upon the new GoPro HD Hero2. On their site they have one of the illest trailers I have ever seen for a camera, and I had to watch it several times.

As we have said many times before, we are huge fans of the crew at StillMotion for their wedding work. In this video, the team steps outside of their standard job to shoot for Shedd Aquarium. They decided to film most of the project on the new Red Epic so that they could shoot at variable frame rates up to 300fps.

TheUnderwaterRealm.com is a blog that is following the production of an independent film that will take place completely underwater. Each week the guys and gals are releasing a BTSV which shows exactly what they have been working on. If you are interested in movie production, I highly suggest checking out their website.

The team over at [Framed] has created another great BTSV, this time with underwater fashion photographer Mallory Morrison. Mallory, a dancer for 23 years, uses her history in the field to help direct her models under the water. I've attempted underwater photography like this before, and it is so much harder than it looks. Check out the video below to see a master at work.

You feel butterflies in your stomach, adrenalin in your viens and joy in your heart. As a photographer this means you either just fell in love OR you just got, "the shot". Marc Montocchio of Occhioinc.com sent me his video of how he fell in love... no wait, of how he got the shot, shown below.

Lately there has been a trend of showing super slow motion videos slowed beyond the native frames per second the original footage was shot on. We love the results of Twixter but nothing can compare to seeing the real thing especially when combined with an extreme sport.

Yesterday I got an email from one of the Red Bull brand managers inviting me out to 2010 Illume Photo Exhibit here in Charleston, South Carolina. Illume is a traveling exhibit where dozens of images from the world's best action and extreme sports photographers are displayed on huge 6'x6' backlit panels.

This is such a crazy idea and as I was watching the video I kept thinking about ways why this wasn't going to work. Well I was wrong. Scott Serfas had an incredible concept and he created an incredible image from it. More info and the final image can be seen here.

Lee and I are wrapping up our trip to WPPI in Las Vegas which is basically the largest wedding convention in the US. So today after meeting with tons of wedding professionals we thought it might be fun to showcase an underwater bridal shoot.

One of my favorite things about Charleston, SC is being close to the ocean. I love being in and around the water, and although I'm not very good at it, I do enjoy wakeboarding. Charleston has become a pretty big hub for sports like kiteboarding and wakeboarding over the last few years, and this city is not short on talented athletes.

Bruce Dale is a veteran commercial and advertising photographer who has also taken some amazing nature and photo journalistic images over the years too. He's worked for National Geographic as well as the White House and companies like Nikon, Southwest Airlines, Caterpillar, and Acura.

What if you could shoot 1080p video for just $300 with a camera that was waterproof, basically indestructible, and so small and light it could be mounted anywhere? What if that camera could also shoot 60fps for amazing slow motion? This camera is the GoPro HD and we own 2 of them. Watch this video and then check out the previous post.

Even if you have never shot pictures underwater before, I bet it has crossed your mind. I know I've tried it a few times and failed miserably. Luckily there are talented guys out there like Cal Mero who are masters at shooting below the surface. Check out his latest BTSV which is packed full of priceless underwater shooting tips. Do you want more info on shooting underwater?

UPDATE: Rich Tully works directly with Clark Little and just sent us this much better video. Click the full post for the original video posted:

As a commercial wedding photographer, I know very little about how to take compelling underwater images. Luckily underwater photographer Brian Skerry and National Geographic have shared this short BTS video on what it's like diving with fish and swimming over coral reefs.

Here is a very simple but totally informative video about splash photography. I cannot figure out who this photographer is, if you happen to know please post it in the comments below.

I guess this has become Speedo Week on Fstoppers! I recently discovered the photography of Michael Muller and must have spent a good hour on his website checking out all sorts of amazing photography! He has recently been working with Speedo for their summer catalog, and the production that goes into these shoots is insane.

I'm always interested in underwater photoshoots because I've failed miserably trying to do my own underwater shoots in the past. I was happy when I came across this video created by Speedo where they show you exactly how they came up for their new 2010 print ad campaign.

Take a look at what a real underwater shoot looks like. This video is great but it isn't half as impressive as Zena's full portfolio.

Well it took a few weeks but we have finally received our first contest submission. Dave Gruentzel Photography of Photofide.com has created a solid BTS video of their latest underwater shoot. If you would like to ask questions or make comments feel free to leave them below or head over to our forum where they posted the video here.

When I think of underwater photography I think about fish and coral. Mark Tipple thinks about shooting waves and swimmers from below the surface. Check out this very quick clip and then head over to his beautiful website here.

Shooting The Underwater Project. from The Underwater Project on Vimeo.

I was just about to throw up a new post and I got this video in an email and decided to change things up. Check out Dave's fantastic BTS video and then head over to his website here.

Dave Hamilton Photography - behind the scenes from tashunka b on Vimeo.

A few days ago I posted Patrick's video of his friends jumping on a trampoline in the desert... I just ran across his skim boarding video on vimeo and I am once again smiling while I watch his work. You want to know how he did it? Simple; he put a GoPro HD Hero on a monopod and threw it around in the ocean. Love it!

Dom Daher first started out as a professional downhill ski photographer. Now he shoots for some of the worlds largest publications and creates images of all sorts of extreme sports including mountain biking, snowboarding, skateboarding, and now wind surfing.

Mick Gleissner is an underwater fashion photographer. Watch MG talk about some of the safety issues and unique challenges he faces in this fashion photography niche. It's truly amazing to see his images after knowing what all he and the models have gone through to create each photo.

Check out more of Mick's incredible images at www.mickgleissner.com

I spend most of my time in Charleston, SC and NYC. It was February and Charleston was uncomfortably cold and NYC was unbearably cold. I had some free time so I decided to fly down to Placencia, Belize and learn to scuba dive. As a photographer I wanted to get some cool photography as well.