Blackwater Photography Tips

by Joshua Lambus

Equipment for Black Water Macro Photography

SLR and mirrorless compact users will find better success with a shorter focal length macro lens (like the 55//60mm). I’ve found that the longer focal length and minimum focus distance of the 105/100mm makes you feel like you’re trying to fight a fly with a sword. Recently I’ve even modified an 18–55 kit lens to close focus so I have a range of focal lengths to play with.

A low powered focus light is also a must, as it gives better visibility at night—some subjects are invisible when not illuminated. It’s also instrumental in helping you or your camera achieve focus. I prefer a less bright focus light over a 2,000-lumen monstrosity as it seems to light up less backscatter and is, overall, less blinding. For lighting, try just using a single strobe: Having a smaller kit is very useful when maneuvering around in the water column. An electrical connection will eliminate the delay in your pop-up flash’s recycle time—a critical function when shooting in quick succession during manual focus.

While black water macro photography is possible with compact cameras, it be nearly impossible for cameras with no manual focus to lock in on the often-translucent subjects in low-light conditions. Although more challenging than with the superior low-light focusing ability of DSLRs, compact users shouldn’t shy away from giving the dive a try—just make sure you have a good focus light, a lot of patience, and some luck.

Other optional but helpful accessories include floatation devices for your camera. Your wrists will thank you for having a neutrally buoyant system after 60 minutes in open water. Also, having some sort of tether connecting your camera to your BCD is not a bad idea to prevent it from falling two miles to the ocean floor. Even if the water is warm, make sure to have a full wetsuit, and even gloves and hood, in case you don’t see a box jellyfish headed your way.


Lighting and Focusing on Black Water Dives

I don’t trust autofocus to lock in on the exact point of an ultra-rare pelagic seahorse in nearly dark conditions. Even if you trust your camera’s autofocus, you might find it less frustrating and more efficient to manually focus on the subject as it comes into view. Rather than trying to constantly change the focus as the subject drifts along in the current, I find it easier to lock the focus and move my camera slightly back and forth.

For focus bracketing to work, you need to be able to rattle off shots in quick succession. For this reason, use lower strobe output combined with a more open aperture to expose your subject (typically around f/11). For the most part, you can count on your exposure settings to remain the same during the dive, adjusting the strobe power as you encounter more and less reflective subjects.


Black Water Composition

Once you’ve gotten to the point where you can comfortably focus and light black water critters, then it’s appropriate to worry about creative composition. I usually try for two kinds of images: the first is one that I find artistic, filling the frame with techniques like rules of thirds, diagonal lines, and S-curves. After I’ve satisfied my artistic side, I’ll try and get a “boring” side shot to help with ID of the creature after the dive. The more you do these dives, the more you appreciate having multiple images of each animal to assist the scientists in telling you what the heck it is.


Final Thoughts

The images from your first black water dive might not be award-worthy—but do not get discouraged. Success on these dives really comes down to practice and familiarity with your equipment working in what seems like endless outer space.

But all the challenge and work and danger is worth it for the reward of witnessing these creatures.

To learn how you can do this dive with Joshua CLICK HERE

For tips on how to photograph this dive CLICK HERE

Never Say Die - Behind The Photo Process

Never Say Die

by Eric J. Franke

For a behind the scenes video of this shot be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of this page.

Lava. Sand. Lava. Sand. Lava. Man, this camera gear is really getting heavy. Today is the day, though. I’m finally going to shoot it.  I’ve hiked past this photo dozens of times. Dozens of times, planning how I want to shoot it. This is common for photographers --- to visualize photos, to plan the shot. This particular shot, the one I’m trying to finally bring to pixels is of a curiously shaped rock on the west coast of the island of Hawai'i. It’s about a 40-minute drive from Maka headquarters, and about a 30-minute hike across an ever changing variety of landscape. We are almost there now, and my eyes can make out the back of the curious rock formation, the one I have given the name Skull Rock.

I look back at Smith, my young and talented assistant, laboring with the rest of the gear. She is as pleasant as she is resilient. If she has ever regretted agreeing to help me capture a photo, you could never tell. I have put her under crashing waves. I’ve placed her in old cars with questionable brake systems. Deep into pitch-black lava caves. She has followed me over miles of raw earth. She’s even had the ocean scrape her across sharp a’a lava, all for sake of my imagination. Always with a smile and the intention to press on to finish the job. In a few months she will start her first semester of a photography degree in Canada. She will do well, assuming she survives whatever repercussions come from trailing a photog whose sanity in the field has been questioned more than once. But hey, gotta get the shot, right?

Not an encouraging assessment upon arrival. 

Miles from any man-made structure; we are finally here. This small stretch of sand is as fantastical as ever, aside from the crummy light, of course. And this is always the plight. The conditions will do as they will. So many times when you are not ready to properly execute a photo, you will be bathed in glorious light. Light that softly dances around your subject, kissing it with golden beams, caressing its edges, bringing a symphonic excitement to your subject. Right now: dull gray. I set up for the shot anyway. 

In order to get the shot that I want we will need to place two strobe flashes into the two spaces on the rocks that resemble eye sockets. And when I write that “we” need to place the two flashes, what you should really read is that Smith will place said flashes. Swimming out to and then climbing up a big chunk of razor sharp lava rock while ocean swells pound against it is an acquired skill. Only a Pacific pro, someone who has spent years growing up in and around the ocean and lava should attempt such a perilous task. Someone brave and cool under pressure. Someone exactly like Smith.

With the two flashes in a waterproof Ewa Marine bag to protect them on the swim out, Smith makes the short trek from shore to Skull Rock, places them, and makes it back to shore.  We need maximum light from the flashes, which means no protective covering while they are in the “eyes.”  The bag is only for transport. We do a test frame or two. All is ready. Then: sprinkles. Then harder rain. I face a tough decision: call it quits and hike back empty handed, or wait it out and hope the gear doesn’t fry in the rain, with the chance that the clouds might break, and a worthwhile photo might be had.

“Just a quick shower. It’ll pass soon,” says Smith with her ever certain optimism. She goes back out to the rock to get the strobes out of the weather.

Smith packs up the gear as best she can to keep it dry. She then stands next to a mysterious pair of loafers belonging to neither of us, while I silently weigh the situation. Lately I’ve been re-visiting some old Spielberg films, and last night was one of my favorites: The Goonies. Many films instilled a strong sense of awe and adventure-thirst in me when I was a kid, not the least of which was this one, where a group of friends embark on a quest for the gold that will save their families and friendships. So I had to ask myself, “What would a Goonie do if he were standing in my size nines? A Goonie would press on. A Goonie wouldn’t give up searching for the gold. Goonies never say die!

A small patch of clear sky starts to open up and the rain subsides. It is still pretty gloomy and void of color, but if the sun hits that area where there’s a cloud break we could be in for a few minutes of dramatic sky, and perhaps a decent photo after all.

We scramble to get the gear pieced back together. The daylight is quickly fleeting, and it’s all going to be about timing now. Smith sets up the tripod and delivers the flashes to the rock once more, and I put my go-to wide lens on my Nikon D800. I want to show a bit of motion with the water so I’m going to need to stack some filters on my lens. A B&W Circular Polorizer pretty much stays on this lens. Onto that I screw a B&W 2 stop Neutral Density filter*. This starts to give me a bit longer exposure. Still a very dull scene though.

Time ticks. We are waiting for the ambient light level to reach a dark enough point to make the amount of light from the flashes have an impact on the scene, all the while hoping that that moment will coincide with a peek from the sun through the clouds.

Getting close but not quite the one.

After a bit, the light starts to get a little more interesting. Color creeps onto some of the clouds. This is good. I take a test exposure. Getting there. To help the scene a little bit I decide to try to bring more color out by warming up my White Balance setting a little. I start with auto or daylight white balance most of the time, but in some cases, this being one of them, I find that cranking it up or down manually can introduce some great results. I eventually crank the WB from 5050K, close to daylight, all the way up to a ludicrous 12166K, introducing some wonderful golden tones to the scene that would not be pleasant for many images, but works quite well for the scene in front of me. I take another exposure.

“This is the moment,” says Smith. She’s right. Light fades quickly at this time of day, and with each exposure I shoot taking thirty seconds, I have to get it right in this next frame or we walk away empty handed. At this point I have stacked three more pieces of glass in front of my lens, all Gradual ND filters to bring the brightness of the sky more even with the brightness of the foreground. I look at my previous image on the LCD display, close but not a winner. I pull two of the grad filters off and leave just the one for the sky. I have to adjust my aperture to compensate for the extra light now coming into the lens. There’s no time to do another test exposure, so I leave my shutter at :30 and open my aperture a few clicks to f/13, hoping for the best. Thirty seconds of held breath. The sun pokes through and the scene looks great. Up to this point I hadn’t been getting quite the amount of light from the flashes that I was hoping for. I fire the test button on the wireless triggers many times during the thirty-second-crawl, hoping that as the frame is being recorded each burst of light will compile in the final exposure of the image. I look at Smith, and we exchange hopeful half smiles. After a bit of silence I start to say, “I hope this wor…” and before I can finish we hear the crash of the shutter slamming back down. The LCD lights up and it becomes immediately clear: we got it.

The final image with warmer tones and bright enough strobe light. 

The sun ducks under the horizon as we scramble to pack up the gear in hopes of making it back to the car before the darkness of night completely falls. As we put the last piece of gear in the bag my mind is going over the events that just took place. What worked, what didn’t work, what to remember in the future. Smith notices my preoccupation.

“You ready?” she asks. “Everything all right?”

“Never say die!” I blurt out before I have time to think.

“Huh? OK, I won’t.”

“Never mind,” I say. “Let’s get back.”

Smith shrugs her shoulders, used to this kind of thing from me. With the weight of the gear on our backs once more we start the last of our journey. Sand. Lava. Sand. Lava…

*Editors note: in the video I mistakenly state that I used a 4-stop circular ND filter, not the 2-stop that I mention here, which is correct. I'm not sure where I got the 4-stop idea from, since I don't think B&W makes one. The 2-stopper is great, though. I use it all the time. 

What's in my bag?

by Joshua

Over the years, people have come into the gallery, and the most common question I get asked is, "What camera do you shoot?"

And while I try to explain that it's not the camera creating the image, and in fact many cameras have the ability of creating similar imagery, I figured I'd put together a post showing my favorite setup that you'll find on me most of the time. I do a lot of hiking and climbing with my gear, and therefore have become quite a minimalist when it comes to shooting, using the least gear for the most visual impact.

Without further adieu..... my camera bag:

A: Lowepro TLZ AW Camera Bag, which has now been replaced with the Lowepro Toploader Pro 75 AW II. -  Small enough to take anywhere and just the right size for all the essentials. It also has a built in rainfly which comes in handy during rainy hikes.

B: Canon 7D - Crop sensor DSLR. Pretty old model these days but still works for everything I need it for.  You can pick it up here, or check out the updated versions 6D and 7DmkII.

C: Tokina 11-16mm 2.8  - Nice wide angle rectilinear lens for landscapes, architectural work, and other shots where you need to capture a lot of the scene. Also, nice large aperture making it ideal for nighttime shots.

D: 50mm 1.2 - A beautiful low light lens. With an aperture of 1.2 which can create nice creamy background, and a crop factor that makes it equivalent to 75mm, this has become my go to portrait lens. Its also great for shooting events and concerts where ambient light is dim at best. I also like the smaller lighter 1.8 version. Still great in low light, and plenty sharp for most uses. Nikon Version.

E: Nikon 105mm 2.5 - This vintage classic is easy to come by these days fairly inexpensively.  I use it for portraits but it tends to be a bit long. You have to back way up to get whole subjects in frame, but it's nice when I need a little more reach than the 50mm can give me. Great for interviews because of its beautiful look and being able to place the camera far from the subject hopefully seeming less intimidating.  Because it is an older lens aperture, it is controlled right on the lens and is manual focus only. You can slap this right on to any modern Nikon DSLR but it needs an inexpensive adapter to work on a Canon body. You can also add a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter to give you an effective focal length of nearly a whopping 300mm!

F: Audio-Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Microphone  - A must have for anyone shooting films that include interviews or in-field narration. This little microphone clips to the speakers lapel and effectively records their voice while substantially cutting out background noise. With a 20ft cable it can be plugged into a camera audio in or directly into an audio recording device like the Zoom H1. and then placed in the pocket of the speaker for a mobile solution.

G: Zoom H1 Audio Recorder - This small device has its own stereo microphone and records stereo audio in either WAV or MP3 format. You can use the on board microphone for picking up ambient noise or recording voice in a quiet setting, or use it how I do and plug in a different mic for a range of audio recording options.

H: Tripod - Though I often carry a larger tripod like the Dolica 60" Carbon Fiber, the one pictured here is an inexpensive minipod.  I use them often with light cameras like a gopro or when doing really long hikes or canyoneering.

I: Intervalometer - These are inexpensive pieces of equipment that can used to create long exposures, time lapses, timer delayed photos, and plenty other functions.  These days, many newer camera bodies are being built with them included.

J: Battery Charger - Though I carry 4 batteries with me, adding a charger takes up room but ensures you can stay on the go and keep shooting as long as there's an outlet nearby.

K: Batteries - I always carry one in the camera and 3 backups. Some think its a bit excessive, but with my long exposures, and timelapse shooting I tend to burn through battery life quickly. Also helps battle battery drain in colder climates.

L: Circular Polarizing filter - Great for making those skies pop, cutting down on glare, and creating rich colors. Another addition you might use is step down rings to make your largest filter compatible with all you lenses.

M: Backscatter Red Filter for GoPro - Balances blue looking video for shooting underwater.

N: Media - Important to have back ups and all the different cards you need.  I use Lexar CF cards for my DSLR and microSDs for my audio recorder and GoPro. And SD cards for misc things.

O: Selfie Stick/Monopod - Great for getting a stable shot, using it either on a stable surface or using it as a counter balance while filming video with the Gopro.

P: GoPro HERO4 - great little sport camera in case I want to set a timelapse, jump in the water, film in a water fall, or as a general backup.

This plus a few other pieces of equipment gives me most of the equipment I would want to use.

Other things that can be brought a long in another "expansion pack" would include:

Glidecam

Strobes - Nikon SB700 speedlight, or the more modestly priced Yongnuo YN-560 II Speedlight Flash for Canon and Nikon.

Radio Triggers - Yongnuo Radio Triggers

CMT Housing or Aquatech Housing to make things water and impact resistant.


Here's what it looks like all closed up and ready to go.  The perfect minimalist setup.