So, I finally ventured into underwater photography. Totally unplanned but we’re encouraged to be open to new experiences that plop on our laps. Near literally because my soon-to-be new experience plopped on to a table. In a mall. And I promptly drooled over it. But I digress. (Er, you did guess that I was talking about a camera set-up, right?)
And yesterday I brought the equipment down. (Simple statement that — seven words belying a full day’s preparation, more reading than I’ve done in a week, and a consultation process that rivaled in-House effort to bring about Charter change)
My first coherent thought as I struggled to stay trim AND manage the camera settings: “I promise that I will never again diss published underwater photographs of any kind” Why? Because to take a fairly decent image underwater one has to be a fairly good diver AND adept with photography. I also promised that I would refrain from doing a Wayne and Garth (”We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!”) every time I encounter an accomplished underwater photographer. (”Wait, was that Gutsy Tuason? On your knees you lot!”)
Not to make the discipline sound elitist but in underwater photography one has to be looking at and fiddling with six things at the same time:
- one’s scuba kit (at the very least keep an eye on the gauge and the dive computer)
- where and how your buddies are (try being in the middle of an unfamiliar dive site and looking up to realize that you’re not seeing the bubbles of your divemates)
- the camera settings (I kept forgetting to turn the strobe on; and auto settings just don’t cut it)
- the ambient lighting
- the immediate marine environment (was that a crunching noise I just heard?)
- AND whatever it is you’re taking to take a photo of
So no matter how adept one is at multi-tasking, underwater photography is challenging. The last time I took photographs above water (you know, that phrase came across really strange), at least I didn’t have to fiddle with gauges and worry about where the buddies were.
Anyway, after two dives I ended up erasing about 95% of my shots because they were:
- overexposed
- underexposed
- the object/s I was trying to take a photo of had left the frame (”Oh look, see, this is the end of the tail of that fish I was trying to photograph.”)
- snowed under by backscatter
- just plain ugly
So you can already tell that I’ll have a lot of practicing to do to build up skills in this department. (grin; more time underwater)
I now understand why nudibranchs (them caterpillars of the sea) make for popular subjects. Yes they’re colorful and often uniquely shaped, but I think for neophytes like me, the motivation is mostly because they stay in place. Try convincing a clownfish to be still long enough to get photographed (”Hold still, you!”)
I was thus relatively pleased to have come up with a recognizable photo of a clownfish. But I must confess that I considerably agitated and probably nearly blinded the poor thing.
Among the terrors of the seas, other than dynamite and other illegal fishers, and the indiscriminate spearfisher, is the trigger-happy photographer with big strobe lights. Next to bleached coral, I suspect that one of the most common manifestations of modern-day mayhem in the marine world are half-blinded critters.
Also saw a very sorry sight that day — dead fish strewn all over the ocean floor. I originally thought it was some big fish that just had a good feed. But then as we saw many more mangled bodies, it was evident that we were looking at the results of dynamite fishing.
Were that it need only take 
a few images to shock people into stopping plain bad behavior. But no, for many humans the sight of wasted marine life does not yet evoke full indignation.
I intend to contact the local government of Samal about what we saw. If it wants to live up to its name as the Island Garden City of Samal (and I’ve heard local officials swear so), it should pay more close attention to the gardens underneath the waves.
Ironically, the most cooperative marine lifeforms I found on that dive (from a photographic point of view) were probably courtesy of that dynamite blast: a blue starfish on top of a dead fish.
I know that starfish are bottom-feeders. It’s just that I never figured they’d scavenge after fish. Well, not that many starfish probably come into a bonanza such as an amply-sized fish. But it does make us wonder about the changes that are wrought on the natural world by our activities.
The Bible celebrates name-giving as among the key functions (powers?) of humans starting when Adam and Eve gave names to all that they saw in the garden of Eden.
One wonders though if in the garden of Samal and in other places, humans have taken that power over the rest of creation to an extreme form: from exuberant name-giving to indiscriminate life-taking.
