Question on bouyancy

I'm new to diving and photography U/W but have gotten my bouyancy down pretty good.
I have found suitable locations for my gear that I think has my trim pretty good at this point and have gotten my weight down to 8lbs using a 3mm/AL80. Maybe to light? Bouyancy test after a dive say I'm pretty good.

But after getting my camera and diving with it I find I'm yoyoing around alot, at first I found myself holding my breathe during shots and tried to correct it but find I still do it. Granted I only have 6 dives actaully using my camera and this is bugging me alot. I haven't had a chance to get out and just do a couple dives to fool around abit and find out what I'm actually doing wrong and figured I might ask some of the more experienced photog's how they dive and shoot. I also found myself using my arms alot more while shooting also. :shakehead

Any advise would be greatly appreciated so I can take the advise and use it to practice on my next dives.

Edited: Oh my camera is the Oly 350 w/ Oly housing no strobe as of yet.

This sounds like classic task loading. You've managed to get good bouyancy control but you're probably still working at it a bit rather than it being natural (it can take a while for it to become second nature). Now add the camera and you have other things to think about. It's good that you've recongised this. The main thing is to take your time. First of all treat the photography as secondary to the dive for a while. Take easy shots rather than trying for the hard stuff. Approach the shots slowly and don't get too ambitious. Over time it will get easier and then you can try for the tricky stuff. Good luck and have fun

The last thing I want to do is discourage you, but from your profile (only 25-49 dives) I would suspect your bouyancy control may be good, but not great. Personnaly I would recommend doing a couple of dives with your hands in your pockets (or just holding the camera) then add getting into weird positions, ie feet high (45 degree angle), vertical etc all keeping yourself stationary looking closely at something and see how good your bouyancy really is. Then you will get comfortable diving no hands and how to control your position with fins and not hands and photos will get much easier.

Also what fins do you dive with? The right fins that let you frog kick, side kick, scull, and backup make holding your position much easier. For me the Force Fins Extra Force Fins work great, and I have been told (but don't have much expirience) the Excellerating Force Fins are even better at these tasks.

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Thanks, thats what I was thinking but wasn't sure. On the dives I used the camera I was doing follow the leader type dives, except for one on the WIT Concrete. And yes I was trying to concentrating more on the shots verses my dive. I can't wait to get back in the water to just dive with the camera and work on it as it has bothered me since I got home from the cruise, because basically I think I looked like the first time diver. More practiced need I quess, is it normal to hold your breath during a shot or is it something else I have to work on? And I do have to work on my breathing skills alot more as I'm a hoover atm. :shakehead More dives needed!!

rhyz:

at first I found myself holding my breathe during shots and tried to correct it ......

Click to expand...

If its any comfort I did just the same......but it is getting better

Meesier42 - No my bouyancy is not perfect, I see alot people I diving with that just blow me away in their skill. But I try to be aware of myself and practice it. My fins are the Aqualung Blades 2 Flex, my first fins. As for the different kicks, I'm not privy to alot of them but can frog-kick and helicopter with some ease. The rest I'm not sure about and haven't been successful in a google on the techiques on them. So far have I think 37-38 dives within my 2 1/2 career.

Edit: I've gotten to the point where I can do my SS horizontal (well I think its horizontal ) looking at my comp. That made me smile the first time I was able to do that without yoyoing or holding on a line.

Step one is to minimize the task loading. If you are adjusting buoyancy during the dive try and minimize the air in your BC bladder by better fine tuning your natural buoyancy requirements. I realize this is harder to do in colder water. The same task loading requirements are faced by spear fishermen as photographers. As one who does both the best way to minimize fiddling with your BC is simply to get your natural ballast as right as possible, then keeping the absolute minimum of air in the bladder. This elliminates the drastic buoyancy changes when changing depths to get a shot. 4 pounds of overweight is equal to a half gallon of air in your BC, which expands and contracts as depth changes. If you can get that down to a half pint the rate of buoyancy change with depth goes right down into the noise, as you can compensate for that automaticly with lung volume.

Spend some more time beating on your buoyancy, your camera skills will thank you for it.

rhyz
My technique might not be for everyone, and some may consider it politically incorrect, but I try to be a few pounds heavy (with the camera). So to maintain neutral bouyancy at depth I need to add a little air to my bc. When I find a subject I want to spend some time with, and the location allows it, I let the air out and settle onto my knees. That makes me reasonably stable and allows me to compose the shot without flailing around and acting like a yo-yo. When I am done with the subject, I squirt some air in the bc again and try to rise vertically until I am in a position to move my fins without disturbing anything that shouldn't be disturbed. As to breath-holding, I don't know any good u/w wide-angle photographers who don't hold their breath when making the photo (to avoid bubbles in the frame). Also politically incorrect, I know, nonetheless true.

Stuff political correctness! i agree with you. I find that my camera is positively bouyant so i tend to add a tad more to me when i dive with my camera & i hold my breath when i take the picture, an injudicious breath can result in 'camera shake' as well as bubbles and fish are such unco-operative models!

To answer the original question though to have bouyancy completly sussed in less that 50 dives is good, but i'm a little concerned by the phrase 'maybe too light' if you are too light & you rise just that little bit too fast you can trigger a real fast ascent BUT being too heavy has it's own problems ably described by Fred T. Every new piece of equipment has an impact on your diving, work out what that is & adjust your weight/diving to that before you do anything else if you have to add or take away lead on each dive do it, but find an easy way.

Don't worry about your breathing, just keep doing it. As you gain more experience & relax a bit more it will go down. i've seen too many people worry about breathing, getting a bigger tank, increasing their drag in the water, consuming more air, getting a twin set etc, increasing their drag in the water.........................

what are you using your arms for? are you trying to hold onto something to keep yurself steady, are you pulling yourself along with them, thinking about this may help answer your other problems.