The picture is part of bigger series titled “Passions for Life” shot a while ago for a management team of a lifestyle hotel client. The idea was simple - create fun portraits that reflect passions of each subject. I was in charge of creative & photography/retouching but thankfully had also support of a great crew which was crucial as each image brought very different challenges.
This particular photo was actually my first attempt at underwater flash photography and I expected the underwater shooting part to be the hard one. I was wrong. We found out fast during the setup that our main prop, the red chair, was the unsinkable type… We spent good 2 hours injecting it through a tiny hole with water to reduce buoyancy and by also attaching extra gym weights it finally sank to the bottom of a pool. All of that of course with clients watching, who luckily found these shenanigans highly entertaining.
Technical setup was quite straight forward. Picture was shot on Nikon D850 with 35mm lens inside a basic waterproof case submerged less than 50cm to allow flash trigger radio signal pass through. Pool side positioned Broncolor lighting with 1 hard light camera left & 1 octa fill camera right.