An Underwater Shoot with Amelia

chrisdavidphoto (62)in #art • 8 years ago

Meet the beautiful Amelia

Occupational therapist and Sydney based fitness/lifestyle model that I was lucky to have participate in my underwater model series earlier in the year. She's a confident swimmer doing ocean swims of up to 2km and previously having done an undershoot for an Imax space film knew some of the challenges she would be facing accepting one of my model calls and keen on that challenge.

I usually have a problem that most models in general who have never tried this genre completely overestimating their skills and abilities which is why I limit those type of shoots to a pool aside for Sydney ocean waters being on the rough, green and murky side close to shore. Its been a breath of fresh air in this instance and organising was easy - she had an idea of what she wanted to try wearing underwater and I also have my collection of fabrics and a few bits and pieces to try on.

Our first few looks we used the natural blue backdrop of the pool and with some afternoon light coming in from behind we had some sun rays beaming through.

Shooting against a black backdrop is usually my favourite as it creates a lot of depth and brings all the focus back on the model especially when it comes to pose and emotion.

Equipment

Most of my model shoots involve using a Canon 5DmIII and 16-35mm f4L IS lens in an Ikelite Housing and 8" Dome. I use an internal correction lens by S&S to improve the corner sharpness of the lens on the dome. Its a weakness of rectilinear lens when shooting in a dome where as fisheye remain sharp all round. Some use diopters for these corrections but I like to keep the wide field of view as much as possible for the short working space in a pool and keeping distances short. The further you are away from the model the greater the impact of the water column with desaturating colours and also degrading image quality.

Underwater model shoots is a self funded personal creative art project I do for the sake of creating art and also challenging myself technically to improve as a photographer. Aside from being extremely challenging in all aspects its also one of the most expensive and high risk due to cost of equipment, chance of equipment damage that insurers will not cover, safety for myself and the model/team. Always great to get some feedback, support or help finding sponsors/clients so I can keep these personal projects alive.