We had no problem until we both got cameras. Now it's more of a challenge. I appreciate everyones feed back because I want to be on the same page with my dive buddy but I want to be practicle. A lot of good suggestions. Mo2vation sounds like you have a good system down.
Dive Buddies With Camera
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dmmike
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Ya know, I find all this talk about diving with a photo. to be like solo diving to be way over stated. My wife and I dive each with a camera and I have never lost sight of her, and she has never lost sight of me. I guess it comes down an understanding and a dive plan.
For us its easy, she uses a "still" camera, and me, a video. So I will normally shot what she sees and she will "snap" what I shoot.
So, if you have to dive with a photo. talk it over, and you never know, you may just see some great things. I know I do
For us its easy, she uses a "still" camera, and me, a video. So I will normally shot what she sees and she will "snap" what I shoot.
So, if you have to dive with a photo. talk it over, and you never know, you may just see some great things. I know I do
Charlie99
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Agreed.Michael Schlink:
The difference I notice is that when I don't have a camera, a bad buddy is simply unable to escape me, even if he actively tries.
When I do have a camera, the buddy has to be aware enough that he doesn't go finning off into the blue yonder (or green soup) while I pause to take a photo. That's not asking for much, and in good viz all but the most horrendous buddies stay in sight. In lower viz, it just takes a bare minimum of buddy skills on the part of the non-photog ----- DON'T SWIM OUT OF VIEW.
If you consistently lose buddies, you need to take a good hard look at the dive skills and overall situational awareness of both you and your buddies.
Charlie Allen
Mo2vation:
Amen brother.
PS. Love the avatar!
HBDiveGirl
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Wonderful thread! I've enjoyed reading the several eloquent descriptions of successful teams diving with cameras.
THAT's what struck me:
When it works, it's because the TEAM is diving with a camera.
I'm not a photographer. I don't pull the trigger. The pix aren't my pix.
So why do I ADORE photography dives with my team-mate?
That belongs 100% to my photographer team mate. The images are his.
My experience of diving for photography is a joy.
Claudette
THAT's what struck me:
When it works, it's because the TEAM is diving with a camera.
I'm not a photographer. I don't pull the trigger. The pix aren't my pix.
So why do I ADORE photography dives with my team-mate?
- I love what we see, moving slowly, seeking marvels.
- CameraMan is thrilled with my cool finds. Shared enthusiasm is more than doubled.
- He shows me his best shots right away, with electric intensity.
- I get to see it all again, later, in exquisite magnification.
- We relive the dive in pictures, with laughter and curses, hits and misses.
- My photog buddy gives "the team" credit, beaming upon exit, saying, "We got some Great pictures on that one!" Each of our reports tell the same story... the team did this.
- I learn constantly from what is revealed in the pictures. Like a lens in my head, this enhances what I see with my naked eye by filling in the details shown by ridiculous macro. See a Cockeral's dorid? I know the skin looks like carved ice! Tiny Blue-banded Goby? It has transparent tubular nostrils! Zebra gobies have emerald green eyes! Who knew??
- We celebrate the successes and commiserate over the 'clusters'.
We dive on. - I'm happily task-loaded to my comfortable max, without a camera, thank you. I'm free to monitor our dive profile and RBT, navigate, call deco, and explore every square meter within glance-distance of my shooting team-mate.
- I see beauty revealed in the photographs that I cannot see alone.
- I enjoy the challenge of moving a big camera rig through surf and rocky shores. It's risky alone. It's a rewarding challenge as a team. I know I'm a key part of a team that "shoots" magnificent pictures.
That belongs 100% to my photographer team mate. The images are his.
My experience of diving for photography is a joy.
Claudette
Darnold9999
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OK as a photographer just have to jump in.
Have heard the phrase "you're the photographer you lead" then all I see is fins and have to swim full time - snap a shot or two on the fly as we go rocketing by the interesting stuff.
Or a better one, "I dive slow too" - yeah right - slow means you stop and look, STOP KICKING and hover maybe spend a minute or two looking. Its hard to see what is hidden - most cool stuff is extremely well hidden, just swimming by you will never find it. Maybe spent a minute or two in one spot, maybe longer, let the creatures get used to you and start moving again so you can see them. Diving slow does not mean that I swim slightly slower than flat out all the time, it means stopping and actually looking.
Being a buddy with a photographer means knowing that they WILL stop for a minute or two and actually look at something interesting, spend 15 or 20 seconds getting the shot - a tough shot may take even longer. This means you need to stop too, maybe look nearby and see if there is something interesting in the neighbourhood. Diving does not always need to happen at warp speed. Diving with a photographer means you will likely see WAY more cool stuff, because they are actually looking, rather than crusing
As a photographer my responsibility is to look up regularly if I stop to take a shot, let you know where I am. Won't spend 5 minutes getting the impossible shot. Will be aware of lights. Will be a buddy. I know where you are - can you say the same? Most can't unless you tap them on the shoulder or flash a light at them to say I'm stopping for a bit here you have to stop too.
Frankly I dive mostly solo now or with other photographers. Too many times I have faced the choice of get the shot or chase down a buddy who left me behind without even noticing my absence. For a while I chose chase down the buddy - now I choose get the shot unless I am with a new diver. Other photographers know what diving slowly means, they pay attention to the little things, the hidden and unique. Have met very few non-photographers that do this. One comes to mind, but she bought a camera so doen't count any more .
Disagree with Motivation here. If I am shooting, for the period of time I am getting the shot I am not paying full attention to my buddy. Not possible. The trick is to make that moment of inattention be as short as is reasonable and keep some part of the brain tuned to your buddy. Even your description of how you take pictures confirms this. "If I come up from a shot to find consistently find myself alone" - if you are paying attention as a full buddy you would know when they left - hard to do when you are getting the shot. If you didn't know they had left how would you know they were having a problem while you were taking a shot?
Am jealous though, a buddy that dives slow and is interested in mask to the floor diving!!! Value that buddy!
I got so pissed at buddy diving I decided to stop worrying about it for a few dives - just take the pictures I wanted and see what happened. Stop chasing after wandering buddies. You want to chase all over the reef and miss the good stuff - feel free. Lasted through two dives and now I dive either with photographers, or solo, or don't worry about pics and just enjoy the swim - 'cause it aint diving in my mind - its swimming.
Rant over
PS This was the only nudi anybody on the boat saw in a week of diving in Belize. Diving slow means you find the unusual. From 6 feet up swimming by you miss stuff like this. (The shot is actually upside down)
http://www.daconsulting.bc.ca/Dive/BelizeBlackSpottedNudi.jpg
Have heard the phrase "you're the photographer you lead" then all I see is fins and have to swim full time - snap a shot or two on the fly as we go rocketing by the interesting stuff.
Or a better one, "I dive slow too" - yeah right - slow means you stop and look, STOP KICKING and hover maybe spend a minute or two looking. Its hard to see what is hidden - most cool stuff is extremely well hidden, just swimming by you will never find it. Maybe spent a minute or two in one spot, maybe longer, let the creatures get used to you and start moving again so you can see them. Diving slow does not mean that I swim slightly slower than flat out all the time, it means stopping and actually looking.
Being a buddy with a photographer means knowing that they WILL stop for a minute or two and actually look at something interesting, spend 15 or 20 seconds getting the shot - a tough shot may take even longer. This means you need to stop too, maybe look nearby and see if there is something interesting in the neighbourhood. Diving does not always need to happen at warp speed. Diving with a photographer means you will likely see WAY more cool stuff, because they are actually looking, rather than crusing
As a photographer my responsibility is to look up regularly if I stop to take a shot, let you know where I am. Won't spend 5 minutes getting the impossible shot. Will be aware of lights. Will be a buddy. I know where you are - can you say the same? Most can't unless you tap them on the shoulder or flash a light at them to say I'm stopping for a bit here you have to stop too.
Frankly I dive mostly solo now or with other photographers. Too many times I have faced the choice of get the shot or chase down a buddy who left me behind without even noticing my absence. For a while I chose chase down the buddy - now I choose get the shot unless I am with a new diver. Other photographers know what diving slowly means, they pay attention to the little things, the hidden and unique. Have met very few non-photographers that do this. One comes to mind, but she bought a camera so doen't count any more
.Disagree with Motivation here. If I am shooting, for the period of time I am getting the shot I am not paying full attention to my buddy. Not possible. The trick is to make that moment of inattention be as short as is reasonable and keep some part of the brain tuned to your buddy. Even your description of how you take pictures confirms this. "If I come up from a shot to find consistently find myself alone" - if you are paying attention as a full buddy you would know when they left - hard to do when you are getting the shot. If you didn't know they had left how would you know they were having a problem while you were taking a shot?
Am jealous though, a buddy that dives slow and is interested in mask to the floor diving!!! Value that buddy!
I got so pissed at buddy diving I decided to stop worrying about it for a few dives - just take the pictures I wanted and see what happened. Stop chasing after wandering buddies. You want to chase all over the reef and miss the good stuff - feel free. Lasted through two dives and now I dive either with photographers, or solo, or don't worry about pics and just enjoy the swim - 'cause it aint diving in my mind - its swimming.
Rant over
PS This was the only nudi anybody on the boat saw in a week of diving in Belize. Diving slow means you find the unusual. From 6 feet up swimming by you miss stuff like this. (The shot is actually upside down)
http://www.daconsulting.bc.ca/Dive/BelizeBlackSpottedNudi.jpg
Darnold9999:
We're saying the same thing - you just said it better. Am I watching my buddy every possible moment? Of course not - I need to get the shot, too. But I am checking throughout the process - I'm not out of the groove or off the team for 5 minutes at a time. Goodness no. There are compromises we make as buddies when were shooting. One of them is attention - we turn it off and on throughout the dive. If I wasn't diving with a strong, aware, competent and engaged buddy that realized this and stepped up her game a couple of notches on the dives I'm shooting, I'd be worried. She does, I'm not. 'sall good.
If you want me to say it, I will without reservation: You are at greater risk diving with a diver who is shooting pictures than you are diving with a non photographing diver. If you're ready to accept that increased risk, and in trade see more stuff, have more fun, and pour over the pictures of a grateful friend over lunch after the dive, rock on. If it scares you, I get that - so dive with someone else.
Darnold9999:
I value the partnership more than I can possibly convey. Suffice it to say: I couldn't do what I do unless I was with 'chica. Before her, I was taking snap shots. Now I'm taking photographs.
Darnold9999:
We all have stories like this. I had some local divers (only one on the group, really... what a sweetheart...) come back the next afternoon and apologize for talking trash about me over dinner the previous night (I wasn't even there) because I was going nuts that day about all the Nudis on a wreck. On the second day, they all saw them... on that first day, they just blasted past them, seeing nothing and thought I was making this stuff up!
---
Ken
Yes, my camera is my dive buddy....
Isn't that the title of this thread? Needs a ? at the end... or a poll...
Isn't that the title of this thread? Needs a ? at the end... or a poll...
dive_lover88
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put the photographers together into 1 grp and the rest into another grp. There no more complains.
Jeckyll, I hope the camera yesterday wasn't a red flag, and I hope the way we organized the dive (me leading with camera and you guys following) worked to allow us all to be comfortable with the dive.
I'm often the photographer's familiar. The role can be fun -- you critter-spot, keep a weather eye on the person face down in the crevice, and then hold your light on the creature until the photographer has it in his viewfinder. Then you move your light and begin casing the neighborhood for the next subject. The person with the camera can be completely oblivious, or check from time to time, but the fact is that you can't compose a photograph while watching your buddy. I always figure it's my responsibility to stay close enough that I CAN get my buddy's attention if I need something, even if that means (and I tried this as a drill once) swimming up and yanking on them to get them to look up and notice you are out of air.
I've only done a couple of dives where both of us had cameras, but the ones with my regular buddy have gone very well. We take turns moving in for a shot; one photographs and the other rides shotgun, and then the roles reverse. Our situational awareness is no doubt not quite what it is without the camera, but it's still very workable.
If you added scooters to it, I'd think you'd have to have really excellent skills to pull it off. At least from my one experience with a scooter
I'm often the photographer's familiar. The role can be fun -- you critter-spot, keep a weather eye on the person face down in the crevice, and then hold your light on the creature until the photographer has it in his viewfinder. Then you move your light and begin casing the neighborhood for the next subject. The person with the camera can be completely oblivious, or check from time to time, but the fact is that you can't compose a photograph while watching your buddy. I always figure it's my responsibility to stay close enough that I CAN get my buddy's attention if I need something, even if that means (and I tried this as a drill once) swimming up and yanking on them to get them to look up and notice you are out of air.
I've only done a couple of dives where both of us had cameras, but the ones with my regular buddy have gone very well. We take turns moving in for a shot; one photographs and the other rides shotgun, and then the roles reverse. Our situational awareness is no doubt not quite what it is without the camera, but it's still very workable.
If you added scooters to it, I'd think you'd have to have really excellent skills to pull it off. At least from my one experience with a scooter
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