Many books about underwater photography have appeared and disappeared, the earlier ones being the most thorough. Many articles devoted to underwater photography have been printed in dive magazines, yet the information you'll find in this section is hard or impossible to glean from elsewhere.

My interest has always been in the biology and ecology of the sea. It is the reason why I have concentrated on taking pictures of organisms, how they live, what they do and how they all relate together. I have not been interested in photographing people under water because they do not live there. But a diver in the frame can contribute to the excitement of the moment and translate the viewer's feelings. I have endeavoured to make my photos look like the underwater world, with its transparency and depth, rather than resorting to effects caused by enlarged contrast, distortion and the like. It has also always been important to me to bring back good results for very little waste, which may explain why I have spent much effort in improving techniques, skills and my equipment.

You may wish to take photos of what people do, their work or of fashion products, dive products or you may wish to document your own research. Whatever your motivation, you will find yourself in that ever changing optical medium, the sea water. You cannot escape the effects it has on your photography and you will need to equip yourself with the knowledge and skills to take good pictures inside this medium.

You will need to be a good diver, able to manage precious resources such as body heat and air. You will dive with or without a buddy and carry an underwater camera that may give you more trouble than pleasure. You will need to gain expedition skills to go out to pristine natural places. You'll need to spend money and you'll need luck too. In this chapter we'll look at general issues -  what you need to have, know, and do.

Divers trained in warm and tranquil tropical seas will not have the skills needed in cold temperate seas with currents and waves. Here they need to wear a thick wetsuit with a heavy weight belt, and they need to master the art of buoyancy compensation. In these conditions it is important to adapt the weight on your weight belt to suit the occasion - whether you go deep, need to weigh yourself down in currents and whether you carry extra heavy batteries and so on. When pushing a camera with strobe and auxiliaries through the water, much water friction needs to be overcome and you need to be physically fit to do so. If you are a smoker, you will most likely never become an successful underwater photographer. If you fear the swimming back to the boat along the surface, you'll start with a serious handicap.

You'll need to have the skills to avoid making dust - settling on the bottom and leaving it. You'll need to be happy to do all dive operations with one hand only, leaving the other free for the camera. You may need to change the hoses on your regulator around to do so and you may need a small side exhaust regulator for left- and right-handed use while allowing you to press your face closer to the camera (which also steadies it better). You may need to have a split lens mask with close-up lenses in the lower half, in order to be able to read the fine camera controls and settings.
 
 

• air consumption: the model must use her air at about the same rate as the photographer. To her delight she will be able to excel because her bodyweight is less, her lungs are smaller and she does not need to push a camera. Skip-breathing (see box below) is what all good photographers do to to extend their time under water. It also helps making less bubble noise. Likewise a buddy must learn this technique without getting a headache.
• fitness: fitness remains important but it depends on what you do. I've seen very unfit underwater photographers taking good photos with a lot of surface support. But this doesn't  increase your chances. It is quite common to swim a couple of hundred metres with all gear on at the surface, to breath-hold dive to ten metres and take a photo. In general, your buddy must be matching your fitness.
• distance: how far should the distance between you and your buddy be? It depends. When scouting along, she can be leading up front, finding new subjects, but never above (or at least very carefully), because debris could rain down on your photo opportunity. Likewise, bubbles can rise up to spoil your photo. When a buddy moves lower down, her bottom time becomes shorter, which is undesirable.
• moving arms: most buddies have never unlearnt the habit of beating their arms for stability or by way of swimming or to remain buoyant. It has a devastating effect on your opportunities, as it scares fish witless. Never move your arms suddenly! Usually wrong buoyancy is the main cause. In many cases it takes a year to unlearn!!!
• buoyancy: whereas the photographer often has to steady himself down, the model or buddy should always be precisely trimmed. Wrong buoyancy leads to excessive use of arms and kicking dust up, or not being able to hold her pose.
• dust: dust is one of the worst problems. If the buddy swims ahead in a current, as suggested above, the photographer arrives in her dust, so in this situation she must stay behind him. Kicking up dust is usually caused by incorrect buoyancy. When rising up from the bottom, use your lungs and take a very deep breath, then with your fingers, push yourself up from the bottom. Resume kicking only when completely free. Tip: small soft fins produce much less dust than long hard fins.
• currents: strong currents are not conducive to good photography but if there is no current at all, the dust and debris does not flow away. Plan your dive against the current, as this is also safer and makes the return easier. Most currents are related to the tides. Mark neap tides on your calendar for the best diving opportunities, because then the currents are minimal and also the water clearer.
• air bubbles: bubbles are unavoidable but when they disturb the subject, are a damn nuisance. Photographers must be able to hold their breath for prolonged times, in order to enhance their opportunities and not to shake the camera. They must also wait for a pause in the wave action. Of course the model does not know this, and breathes out at alll the wrong moments, bubbles hiding her face and eyes. So, time your breathing with the peak of the wave motion, and after the shot was taken. Models please watch the breathing of the photographer to get a clue.
• sign language: there is no photographers' sign language, and you will develop your own. Wherever you are doing serious shoots with models, go up to the surface to discuss the situation, so she'll understand what is expected.
• donning gear: because the photographer has so many things to do and check and wear, a buddy must be entirely self-reliant. She must don her own gear and get back on board without the photographer's help. Sorry.
• finding objects: while the photographer is spending much of his dive time peering through a small rectangle, the buddy is often free to go ahead and explore. Naturally she is the chosen one to find new subjects. Now she needs to tell the photographer, and wait and wait for the right moment when the shoot is done. Then she must be able to remember where this object was, and this very often fails. Thus a model must have good spatial orientation but it's a lot of fun.
• modelling: many girls like the kudos of being a model but underwater models better beware.
• outfit: her outfit is the best, without blemishes and with the least of clutter. So it is her responsibility to put it on in such a way that the cluttering objects are tucked away and not half visible.
• clear mask: a model's mask must be spotless, without steam inside or water under the nose or a bloody nose for that  matter. But often she cannot see what the photographer sees, so be prepared to clean your mask under water, which can be unpleasant.
• breath-hold diving: some of the most exciting photographs have a free-diving model without the clutter of tanks and BCDs and heavy belts. When free-diving, the model has trained herself to hold her breath for at least 30 seconds, such that she can swim to her position, the water closes overhead with the ripple pattern as if undisturbed, and enough time to make two photos. Phew! Then do it again and again. Should you have such a model, don't tell anyone because you'll lose her :)
• playing: taking photos of models in situations requires a mix of direction and freedom. Sometimes the photographer's creative idea directs the shoot but then again, sometimes (and this can be very often) the model makes the picture and the photographer just grabs each opportunity. It can be very rewarding. We call it playing. Good models have some grace and elegance in the way they move, and when they play, wow!
• fear: fear for the environment, unfamiliarity or political correctness (please don't touch anything) can diminish your opportunities considerably. Both photographer and model must have a good knowledge of the environment and what is really dangerous.
• camera care: camera care is entirely the photographer's responsibility. But so often a helping hand is on board with dry hands and can be the gopher for changing a film or lens. Often the buddy does not dive because the photographer is usually more motivated, and then it would be so nice if she could change a film or lens skilfully and safely.

f031613: unstructured behaviour of the model, or playing can lead to surprising moments like befriending a wild giant spotted black grouper (Epinephelus daemelii). It took 3 hours to get here. 28mm lens.

f027512: longfinned eels (Anguilla dieffenbachii) showing no fear of the model in a freshwater stream. It takes much patience to get to this situation, while time is running out due to the cold. 16mm lens.

My advice is to buy the smallest housing (both for flash and camera) with the most controls (the dearest). You'll notice that the cost of the housing often exceeds that of your camera and lenses. A small housing weighs less above water, is easier to push through the water and is also easier to carry along. Your housing will have a selection of 'ports', the glass between your lens and the water. Wide angle lenses need dome ports whereas normal and tele lenses work fine through a flat port. Often plastic dome ports are not optically precise or they are not precisely placed, thus reducing the sharpness of your lens. Wide angle lenses for the Nikonos 3-5 underwater camera do not have this problem but this camera is rather primitive and no longer in production.

It is very important that you can observe the whole frame of the viewfinder through your mask. 'Sport' finders are unacceptable for good photography. Likewise close-up frames such as used for Nikonos cameras are not really adequate. Make sure your housing allows you to mount both a quality macro lens and one 2 or 4 diopter close-up lens or filter.

Please note that the Nikonos RS (Reflex System) is perhaps THE most sophisticated and easiest to use camera with the sharpest lenses ever made. I have been using this camera to full satisfaction since 2002. A full chapter will be devoted to this camera and how best to use it.

• Dive air: sooner or later you will have used up all the air in your tank. The deeper you go, the sooner. The era of sudden dive endings is over because of contents gauges and dive computers. You must have a computer, because this allows you to stay longer and go down or up as you like in your dive profile. It allows you to plan your dive under water.

Although some dive institutions advise not to skip-breathe (holding one's breath), this is still a safe technique to extend your bottom time considerably. A good diver with a 12 litre tank (90 cuft) is able to stay at 5-10m depth for over two hours! A headache with neck pain (like a migraine) signals that you are overdoing it and you can adjust your technique accordingly. The first dives of an expedition are always the most sensitive to skip breathing, so get into it gradually. Air can be saved by not swimming fast and particularly by compensating one's buoyancy precisely and frequently. Learn to become perfectly balanced to swim horizontally.
• Dive time: if your air hasn't run out, your dive time will, particularly during deep dives. You can extend your underwater time considerably by not using up all 'no stop' time at depth, but instead returning to the shallows earlier. Here you can also use up all safety air under 40bar/500psi.
• Body heat: the colder the water, the shorter your stay. The deeper you dive, the thinner your wetsuit becomes, and the more your inhalation air cools your lungs. You can extend your stay by wearing thick wetsuits but these require heavy weight belts. Most important is that your suit fits well and does not allow exchange of water. A hood comes next, then booties and finally gloves. Your hands are able to shut off circulation quite easily. For very cold conditions, use a drysuit but these are not a panacea. The air bubble within makes diving unpleasant and it affects many aspects of photography.Note that a lot of a diver's hypothermia arises from breathing compressed dry air. While air expands in the first stage of the regulator, it becomes cold air and super-dry. In the lungs this leads to abnormal evaporation of body liquids, which cools the body rapidly. Note that a freediver does not have this problem.
• Slow hypothermia: most diving results in acute hypothermia, characterised by feeling cold, followed by shivering. It is the safest form of hypothermia because it gives very clear unpleasant signals. What you need to watch out for is slow hypothermia, which can occur by staying wet for too long; standing in cold wind and so on. Make sure you recognise it because it can be a slow killer. Slow hypothermia does not give strong shivering but is first noticeable by feeling lacklustre. On cold days, make sure you get into dry clothes again with a jacket to protect from the wind. When your wetsuit is wet, while in a boat, you will suffer slow cooling until the wetsuit dries up from the outside. If you need to wear it, wear a wind jacket over the top. It makes an ENORMOUS difference.
• Fatigue: as you grow older or become unfit, fatigue sets in earlier. You'll miss out on the third dive of the day and give some night diving a miss. In order to make the most of your expedition, you'll need to be well prepared and trained beforehand. Don't indulge in excess alcohol during the trip, get good sleep and light meals. Let the doctor check if your hormonal levels are normal (Testosterone!). Note that some alcohol can be beneficial. When feeling very cold, particularly in feet and limbs, a small amount of liquor (brandy, whiskey) can help you get warm very much more quickly. I always store an emergency flask of brandy on board and beer in the cold bilges.
• Being fat: fat divers know that they are a greater risk to decompression because fatty tissue absorbs nitrogen gas in higher densities while releasing it more reluctantly, just as smokers know that their lungs could rupture more easily during ascent. But what is insufficiently known is that belly fat takes space that would otherwise have been used for breathing. A wetsuit furthermore exerts pressure on the chest, and these two factors make that fat people run out of breath very quickly. They can seem fit and strong in non-aerobic exercise (such as lifting) but fail badly when air is needed in aerobic exercise such as swimming back to the boat in a current. You can't be fat as a good underwater photographer!
• alcohol and diving: the politically correct notion is that diving and drinking do not go together, but this is not strictly true. Sure, a booze-up may reduce your judgment and sense of responsibility, but divers routinely experience nitrogen narcosis to the equivalent of one drink for every ten metres of depth. So, what is so bad about a drink and should we be dogmatic about it?
• headaches: a headache at the end of a dive is so common that divers don't talk about it. Most headaches come from sinus problems. Being unable to let air into the sinuses, the tissues rupture and they fill with blood. Hence that bloody nose at times. Of course you should have taken your Pseudoephedrine tablet before the dive, but did you know that half or a whole drink of carbonated alcohol  (beer or fizzy wine) helps? It also helps against those migraine headaches from skip-beathing, but in both cases best when taken before diving.
• seasickness: a single drink of alcohol helps to avert mild seasickness when taken well in advance. It is thought that the reason drunks swagger is their loss of a sense of balance. It is this same numbing of the balance organ that prevents seasickness.
• warming up: the general idea is that alcohol should not be used to warm a patient suffering from hypothermia, because as the alcohol improves circulation, it also cools the warm heart with the cold blood from limbs, and the patient dies. But this is an extreme and hopeless case. For divers who have difficulty warming up after a dive, a toddy of brandy performs miracles while also warming their feet inside the sleeping bag.
• Photographic film: if you run out, you've had a good dive. If you have film left unexposed, you'll be faced with a dilemma: use it for the next dive or load a new film? I've seen a professional photographer for the National Geographic magazine take down over a dozen cameras during one dive, with the aid of a helper whose task it was to ready them and to place them at strategic points under water. This photographer would shoot some 500 frames during a single dive. It is much better to learn the skills of taking many successful photos with only little waste. You'll learn these in this course.

Having two cameras, one for wide angle shots and one with a zoom lens, is definitely an advantage if you can afford it and have a buddy willing to carry one. Having patient surface support, allowing you to reload film, swap cameras and go diving again, is also a good solution. Preferably train someone who stays dry, to reload the film. Cameras are easily damaged by a single drop of salt water. Tip: use the type of towel cloth wrist cuffs used by tennis players to prevent water droplets from your wetsuit from leaking into the camera while changing a film or lens.
• Battery life: Practically everything runs on batteries these days. Movie makers run out of battery power very quickly. Make sure to be able to charge batteries on expedition. Keep a log of battery replacements in your various cameras (when was it that you replaced that battery?). Mark the date of replacement on the battery. Use only long-life lithium batteries. These are cheaper per unit of electricity and perform better too (more power in low temperatures and they deliver more current). Most important of all, learn to switch your gear off when not in use ( my weakness). Long-life batteries also require you to do fewer changes, reducing the chance of equipment flooding. My worst mistake on expedition is usually not switching cameras and strobes off.

The graph compares temperature performance of Lithium iron disulphide batteries with Alkaline manganese or 'standard' alkaline batteries. Although their capacity ratings do not differ very much, they do differ significantly performance wise. Whereas a standard AA alkaline battery is rated at about 2.5Ah, it can deliver this energy only when used in low current applications like transistor radios. Once current is demanded as required for recharging a strobe light, its capacity drops to half its nominal value. When the temperature furthermore drops to close to 0ºC, it performs at about a quarter of its rating. Here is where lithium batteriesrated at 2.7Ah, with their very low internal resistance, , make an enormous difference. Whereas alkaline batteries degrade gradually, extending the recharge time from 4 to 10 seconds, lithium batteries die rather suddenly, extending recharge time from 4 to about 6 seconds, which can be a nuisance. Note that a D cell has about six times the capacity of an AA cell and a C cell about 3 times. Lithium batteries have exceptional shelf life of over ten years! It means that you can leave batteries in unused equipment without running the risk of them leaking and damaging it. It also means that their internal leakage is very low and that they retain their capacity for very long periods. They are excellent to take with you on expeditions.After replacing batteries preventatively , the used ones can still serve in other items like torches, GPS, etc.

• Scaling up: if you are going on a two week expedition, make sure you have recently done a weekend expedition. It should have revealed the weaknesses in your equipment and yourself. If you are going to an extremely cold or warm place, make sure you have done something similar beforehand.
• Health: expeditions have the habit of wearing you down, gradually. Prepare yourself by starting fit and keeping yourself fit with exercises that can be done in a confined space (like yoga, push-ups, sit-ups). Treat the expedition as a training exercise and do not exert yourself on the first day, but rather build your programme up gradually, from day to day.

Wounds and scratches are a serious handicap to diving. They heal slowly because of repeated salt water exposure, become inflamed and eventually prevent you from diving. Just be extra careful and carry several pairs of surgical gloves for those hand wounds.
• Seasickness: getting seasick should never come as a surprise. You should long before have tested your susceptibility. Take those tablets when you think you need them. Can seasickness be cured? The literature denies this - once sick, always sick. But since I had my own boat, I have never been seasick again, so experience cures some people. Some boats make you more seasick than others. Slow, rolling motor vessels are the worst; sailing boats next, and catamarans the best. Diesel fumes and the smell of vomit are almost certain to make you seasick. If you can choose your ship, let seasickness be a consideration because it is a very serious and disabling condition.
• Nasal decongestion: most people suffer to some degree from blocked sinuses. It appears to be related to city life with its challenging fumes. Don't take your chances but use decongesting pills, particularly in the beginning of the expedition. The substance Pseudoephedrine is the stuff that helps, but nowadays you have to sign your life away to get it. Diving without head aches is just so nice! Very recently a new form of Pseudoephedrine has become more readily available, one that is not easily converted to the street drug P. Alas it is also less effective.
• Batteries: make sure you can charge those rechargeable batteries. How long is mains electricity available each day? Perhaps you need to have fast rechargers, perhaps a solar panel. Try to standardise the voltages you use, rather than carrying a dozen different types of battery chargers. Use long life lithium batteries only. In cold places you need twice the number of batteries because they perform worse. The most important expedition skill is just turning equipment off when not in use and never forgetting to do so. Before going to bed, check those switches again!
• Equipment rinsing: all photographic underwater equipment corrodes when exposed to concentrated salt water. If you have a facility to rinse your equipment with fresh water, then do so. Failing that, keep the gear moist and do not let it dry up because when the salt concentrates it becomes corrosive. Wrap it in a moist towel; keep it in a cool place; in a sealed box; out of the sun. Same for your dive gear. Contrary to popular opinion, fins, masks and wetsuits do better when staying salty, so they do not need to be rinsed. Plan a big bucket of fresh water as necessary expedition equipment. Gently wipe your precious lenses dry after each rinse, otherwise their hard coatings will show spots. I use a bucket with 5 litres of fresh water for my cameras and this may last for five days before requiring to be refreshed. Give your regulator a daily dip too.
• Check lists: maintain check lists to jog your memory. They represent your accumulated expedition experience and give you peace of mind. Use someone else's check list if you have none. Don't forget that roll of paper tissues and some gaffer or ducting tape!

• Out of focus/ depth of field: photos should be sharply in focus where it matters. Do you need to guess distance settings? Do you need better glasses or an auto-focus camera? Do you need to use a faster film? Do you need to recalibrate your distance settings (for macros e.g.)? Did you shift the camera after it focused automatically?
• Movement blur: do you need to use a faster shutter speed or more flash light? Do you need to use a faster film? Do you need to use a tripod? Do you need to click at a better moment (the pause in wave movement, e.g.)? Do your hands shake? I use a small tripod whenever I can, except for macro photography. It does give the sharper images.
• Exposure: is the film under- or over exposed? Do you need to alter your strobe light intensity? Is the light optimally balanced for foreground and background? Do you need to use faster film? Do you need more bracketing? Do you need to use a more tolerant film? There's never enough light and every photo entails a compromise.
• Wrong moment: did you click at the wrong moment? What do you need to improve this? How can you anticipate the way a situation develops? Do you need more skills in handling animals or models? Are you synchronising with the wave motion? Are you too impatient? Are you too lacksadaisical? Are you clicking too soon or too late?
• Composition/framing: What is the reason you did not compose the image optimally? Do you have parallax problems? Can you see the image completely in the viewfinder? Does the viewfinder need calibrating? Did emotion make you blind? Do you need to brush up on theory? Are you too hurried?
• Colour/contrast: The quality of the light changes enormously from moment to moment, from shallows to depths and from one position to another. Are the colours right and the contrast optimal for the prevailing conditions? You may need to aim in a different direction. You may need to use colour correction filters. Are you using the  right film?
• Help light: Did your strobe or other light source cause problems (scatter, bleaching, shadows)? Was it aimed correctly? Did it fill the way it was needed? How can you improve it? Does your buddy need to help? Do you need a modelling light attached to the strobe?
• Repetition: Some repetition is necessary for bracketing and other reasons but how many unnecessary repetitions did you shoot? Can you vary your angle or distance or aspect while repeating shots? Did you forget what shots you took before?
• Irrelevant: how many shots prove irrelevant because you would never be able to use the result? Did you just click away? Did you think about what to do with the photo later? Does the photo tell a story and what would be needed to make it do so?
• Experimental: Experimenting is necessary to improve skills, to test your methods and improvements and to just try surprising ways, but many fail. Did you learn from the experiment? How can you improve it next time? Can others learn from your experiment? Did you do it in a systematical way? Can you do it again next time and include it in your portfolio of tricks?
• Good ones: the ones you wish to keep. They may have been marked in some of the categories above but do not need to be rejected as such.

• Clouds: clouds quickly diminish the quality and quantity of light under water. You may have to resort to close-up strobe-lit photography. In temperate seas the amount of light under water in winter may be three f-stops less than in summer, making winter shoots all but impossible. Blue skies create opportunities for wide angle lenses. Half overcast skies often introduce more light under water, particularly inside caves and archways and on the shaded sides of rock walls. Clouds provide soft lighting, often good for fish portraits in shallow water, using fast film.
• Waves: waves introduce water movement, sometimes creative for the cinematographer but for the still picture photographer they create extra problems. It may be necessary to strap extra weight on your belt or to dive deep. (wave movement diminishes rapidly with depth)Perhaps use a faster film as well. Large waves are invariably damaging to equipment, particularly when boarding after the dive. Just give big waves a miss. Seek sheltered places. Waves stir up sediment and reduce visibility.
• Currents: under water life is richest in areas with sea currents but diving becomes more dangerous. Strap an extra weight on your belt to improve bottom stability. You may need that tripod too. Currents quickly carry away the dust stirred up and may be advantageous this way. Most currents are tidal, allowing only one dive per day on the high or low tide. Make sure you have alternative dive sites too. In some places the only way back is over the bottom back to the shore, as if doing a dive inside a deep cave, because you can't do a decompression stop or safety stop in a racing current. Be aware.
• Visibility: poor visibility invariably leads to poor pictures. Use wide angle lenses or resort to macro photography. In the shallows, poor visibility can be used very creatively to accentuate the sun rays penetrating the water, to shoot misty moods and to separate foreground from background.

The most difficult question to answer is: What makes a good photo? Eventually I narrowed this down to the following list of qualities:

• Serve its purpose: many photos are good simply because they do the job. They are wanted. This is the most important quality but not necessarily for winning competitions.
• Technically pleasing: the technical quality (sharpness, composition, etc) must serve its purpose. A blurred image is not necessarily wrong. The technique used must serve a purpose, any purpose listed here.
• Best option at the time: shows the skill of the photographer. Can the image be improved upon? If one can, you have missed an opportunity.
• Element of surprise: an unusual situation, the right moment, an unusual angle, a technical trick. This is usually rated highly in competitions.
• Co-incidence of 2-3 themes: for example a leaf, with dew in the morning sun and a caterpillar gnawing it. Always look for the confluence of more than one idea and take the time for it; otherwise enact it. This is also rated highly in competitions.
• Tell a story: as above but it is the story that matters, not so much the photo. An illustration of an idea. Often judges and the public do not get the story, reason why this type of image does not rate highly. But in a book, accompanied by text, these photos are the most desirable ones of all.
• Colour: the gaudy colours of the underwater world are addictive, surprising and pleasing. Colour always wins over monotone. Spend more time on your most colourful subjects.