APS Behind the Lens: Game of Thrones
I have been scuba diving for 50 years, but only really became interested in underwater photography when I retired five years ago.
I have enjoyed ‘terrestrial’ photography for a long time, but underwater photography is very different in many ways. Ambient light, and particularly reds and yellows, are lost very quickly as you go deeper, so most underwater photography requires additional light in the form of ‘strobes’, which are essentially underwater flash units.
TTL does not work, as the camera assumes light will behave as it does in air. Consequently, we are almost always shooting manually. The strobes need to be positioned differently depending on the subject, so the lighting is never uniform.
You also need to get close to your subject, as light intensity drops off very quickly in water. ‘Backscatter’, caused by particles suspended in the water, is another constant problem, and getting close helps to reduce it. Then there are the challenges of maintaining buoyancy and working with currents.
This photograph was taken on a reef in Sulawesi, Indonesia, at a depth of about 20 feet.
This is a porcelain crab, which is protected by the stinging tentacles of its host anemone. I thought the scene was reminiscent of the throne made of swords in the popular television series Game of Thrones. The crab was less than 3cm in diameter. It feeds by combing plankton from the water with its long, feathery setae.
I use a Canon G7 X III in a Nauticam housing. This is a much smaller setup than an SLR, allowing me to get much closer to my subjects. ‘Wet lenses’ attached to the front of the housing can be changed underwater, unlike with an SLR, where the lens inside the housing cannot be changed.
For this photograph, I used an INON M67 Close-Up wet lens attached to the front of the housing, along with a single Inon strobe.
Underwater photography makes you look much more closely at wonderful marine creatures and reveals spectacular details that are not always appreciated with the naked eye. ❂
