Underwater

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.