diver photos--not in vogue anymore?

hey all

I've been meaning to ask this for a while...I am personally very partial to photos featuring divers interacting with the undersea environment, sea life, etc. Admittedly I was brainwashed early from admiring the photos in National Geographic and, later, Skin Diver. Stephen Frink comes to mind--wide angle, dramatic lighting, a (usually female) diver looking at some sea critter, you get the idea.

This kind of stuff seems to be a lost art form anymore; all the serious underwater photographers seem to concentrate on macro photos of coral and fish, and divers only pop up in informal snapshots.

I know that the wildlife is the thing that matters; perhaps the diver photo is a relic of a more peoplecentric era? Or maybe they're simply intended more for advertising/marketing/stock use, ie commerce driven. For average people, a closeup of a nudibranch is probably real boring. A hot model diving...not boring.

I'm curious if you guys have any thoughts on this, or if any of you like to use people in your photos as a matter of course.

cheers

Billy S.

Now that's a very good question! I'm just a newbie so I'm interested in what will be said about this subject. The recent pic alcina posted with octo, sun, and divers would suggest to me it's about composition as much as subject matter. I suspect opinions will be widely varied, as they usually are here.

Jet

I'd like to take more shots with divers.

However, I dive to see things first, and to take photos secondly. I don't always dive with the same dive buddy, and don't know anyone with a nice looking wetsuit, really streamlined rig, and wants to spend their dives waiting on me to be my model. As long as this is a hobby and I'm not trying to turn pro, I probably won't be able to arrange a model whose goal in the dive is to follow my instructions.

-Mark

Yes, getting shots of people seems to have gone to the wayside some, I think we have just gotten more involved in trying to get the 'perfect fish shot' so to speak.

I usually have my face down in the coral looking for the little guys or things hidden in some hole and over look the big picture, no pun intended. On our last trip I did get a pretty good pic of David, our DM from Dive with Martin, swimming thru an air ring, it's in my gallery.

I would love to shoot more photos of my wife with subject, but she has a tendancy to be a little camera shy and will put her hand in my face like a movie star avoiding paparazzi! On our next trip I'm going to work on getting her more involved. Maybe when she's not looking!

True, true, I find myself trying to take macro photos as well, but I still enjoy those wide angle shots with beautiful scenery as well.

I still see plenty of divers in pro photos (just flick through a dive magazine and look for pictures of wrecks, caves, etc.). I guess with the advent of digital, macro/fish portraits are just so easy that many diver/photographers think "why bother with anything else". A guy like me can slave away for years with an old manual-everything SLR and a first-time diver with a digital can get better fish portraits almost by accident.

Why haven't you seen as many "photos featuring divers interacting with the undersea environment"? It's because they are harder than most.

It is usually more difficult to get divers to co-operate! just joking... Finding the model who knows what is required is usually the problem. For an amateur, it is quite difficult, as most of the other divers in the group are not models or photographers. Its hard to tell someone to get close to a seafan or look over the giant barrel sponge underwater if they don't know how u/w photography works. The only "success" i have had was when I was diving alone with the resort's DM. Then we have all the time to pose..

I think we also try to move to a more natural shot. When a diver pose nicely for a photo, have flashlight on, shining light on a seafan, even though the water was crystal clear etc, just look a bit too setup. When you take a picture of diver when they are not posed, often they are not as interesting as taking pictures of little critters.
I rarely try to take a picture of a diver unless I happen to have wide angle lens on and they happen to be in a right place at a right time (easier said than done).

1. Interacting with sea life is considered a no-no by many. No touching or disturbing is the rule of the day for the politically correct diver or photographer. It could be that pictures of divers just looking at sea life is a snoozer.

2. A lot of pictures of divers seem to concentrate on using them as an accessory, background, or a device to show context. These divers are best when they do not distract from the main subject so they need to be "model perfect". Regular divers may not get their picture taken unless they are streamlined and look just right. Even then they are not the main subject.

3. Getting wildlife to cooperate is difficult and posing a model isn't so easy either. Putting both together for the "perfect moment" in the "perfect conditions" may be a job for the professional or very experienced.

4. I just settle for taking pictures of my dive buddies and if one or two frame up nicely I'm happy. Most are ordinary divers on ordinary dives. I've posted some in my gallery but I think they mean more to me and the people in the picture than to anyone else.

This is probably the closest picture that I've taken that could be described as a diver in the underwater environment just for the view's sake. I found it hard to frame and get the divers all doing something interesting all at the same time. It accomplishes my goal of remembering the moment but is probably not as interesting to others as it is to me.