The Challenge of Underwater Photography by dtam

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photography · @dtam · Mar 7 '22

$4.29

The Challenge of Underwater Photography

Photography is all about light. Photography literally means the study of light. So what do you do when you lose so much light underwater. You can bring your own with special underwater strobes, but then you deal with the backscatter off all the suspended sediments, particles, and plankton...creating tiny white spots all over your photo. Plus, a lot of the photo subjects are moving around quickly.. so fast shutter speed is necessary. Then there is the ever present challenge of a human staying in an environment for long enough to set up a photo while either not breathing or carrying a ton of scuba gear.

Just imagine taking the hardest parts of night photography, photography in the rain, and wildlife photography... and then combining them for every shot. That is underwater photography. But the bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward. And the extreme challenge also limits the playing field.

My background of marine biology, underwater naturalist, whale researcher, and scuba dive master meshed well with my passion for photography. Now I scuba and free dive with a full frame Canon 5d in an Ikelite housing with Ikelite strobes to take on the challenge of underwater photography. Living in a place like Maui, Hawaii has its perks.

Here are a couple of my shots...

![MalaDive (59 of 58).jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dtam/242hL3t3LWUd6YUP8hP9scbkQvWbyhbSrjca3No6DKhkQvjLuBGGnXge8ETZyiBbxC2Rz.jpg)
I've photographed sea turtles a lot. They are a wonderful subject from all angles. But this is my favorite. Being reptiles they have to come to the surface for air. After several breathes to reoxygenate, they descend back down, sometimes for hours. But on calm days, the surface of the water can become like glass...showing the sky beyond. And in wildlife photography it is great to be able to shoot the animals coming at you. It just takes a well timed dive on your part, and a long breath hold, with some good buoyancy to get this shot.

![IndoNudibranch.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dtam/23wWTEq4TKaWTtcv9Kkf3zQoPLPhqfgib8ShxtN8Naw6WcF8krvXjfQzyKJUBW93dEr2K.jpg)
Any nudibranch fans out there? Anyone never heard of them? Well they are sea slugs. And no, I'm not a big fan of the garden-eating land slugs. But the beautiful, colorful, wondrously patterned sea slugs I will take all day. They are one of my favorite underwater photo subjects. Most are only the size of my finger, so a macro lens in the way to go. And even though they are brightly colored, it is still a bit of a treasure hunt. I could do multiple posts just about these amazing sea creatures.

![Shark0004.JPG](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dtam/EokTt9RHsf6hQbNNjs6ZhwuonzbM2o5Y64m27pf1WChwaPjD651SA91sBY8dNqP9obn.JPG)
Whale sharks in Maui are quite rare to encounter. I got pretty lucky on this occasion as it occurred near the offshore island of Molokini. The water is as clear and beautiful as you can get here, as you are about 3 miles offshore. The whale shark turned perfectly so I could capture the entire body, while also showing I wasn't interfering with the beautiful creature. It wasn't afraid at all to glide right by me before disappearing off into the blue.

![ExtraWhaleSharkFootage-44.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dtam/23xoYqSfH4f9AAVkFds8MVK9EHL12Pmm6oPGyCWH4mhczDDDaxGWGRTrurypBUhLz6Ute.jpg)
This photo was only possible freediving, so no scuba gear. The reason was that these whale sharks were swimming quite quickly. So we had to move fast. I saw this one and had the boat drop me off well in front of it. The water was a bit murky so at first all I saw was a cloud of these silver and gold jacks. Then all of a sudden the cloud parted and a giant dark shape emerged. It was a nearly 10m (30ft) whale shark, swimming right at me.

![BigDay1 (46 of 111).jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dtam/23tvXz2ohNfwCokqqVdh7fXe9EpoayRNEjJNFRnrPi4HSwV8pZfXmmxwDTpcRo4F5vEFh.jpg)
Most people know anemonefish as 'clownfish', although that just describes one species of many. They are a favorite photo subject of mine because not only are they quite beautiful and colorful, but their anemone homes are otherworldly and provide amazing backgrounds. They say that a lot of the inspiration for the Avatar movies came from underwater life. If people like this photo a lot maybe I will do an entire post just for anemonefish photos.

![Delphines31.JPG](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dtam/23vri6QrTqddR4ruMo97tjinvMqUo42BmNx1kyDbJMCSLbuKQ5vv7ettv4UgvP7ki21Pa.JPG)
Two spinner dolphins broke off from the pack to come check me out. I dove down about 10m (30ft) and waiting for the dolphins to come my way.

Feedback always appreciated. The underwater world is a treasure chest for the intrepid photographer. I always tell people, 'putting on a snorkel mask is like a window to a whole new world.'

-Dai Mar Tamarack

👍 photofeed, jarvie, sunset.curator, carrinm, dksart, steevc, eric-boucher, kiemis, aweber, ambyr00, yumyumseth, pradeepdee6, synrg, the.success.club, teamuksupport, caseygrimley, zipporah, ninnu, mammasitta, photographercr, desro, investegg, driptorchpress, ambifokus, scottshots, tggr, derekkind, tristan.todd, kieranstone, themonkeyzuelans, sharker, nightportraits, witkowskipawel, limn, originalmrspice, mattniblock, miroslavrc, tawadak24, lk666, kiemurainen, honeycup-waters, peterpanpan, leighscotford, matajingga, jfolkmann, kibela, vmoldo, finkistinger, archbitsmith, hansmast, dyptre, fatman, batman0916, big-m, alpinelifer, ilovegames, clweeks, lextenebris, nicklewis, mrcnzajac, sarkash7011, lemi, kdtkaren, phogyan, and 81 others

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@arfa · Mar 7 '22

Wow, its very nice, diving under water

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@dtam · Mar 7 '22

Thanks arfa, and I agree, there is nothing quite like diving underwater.

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@gangstalking · Mar 7 '22

The people doing V2K with remote neural monitoring want me to believe this lady @battleaxe is an operator. She is involved deeply with her group and @fyrstikken . Her discord is Battleaxe#1003. I cant prove she is the one directly doing the V2K and RNM. Doing it requires more than one person at the least. It cant be done alone. She cant prove she is not one of the ones doing it. I was drugged in my home covertly, it ended badly. They have tried to kill me and are still trying to kill me. I bet nobody does anything at all. Ask  @battleaxe to prove it. I bet she wont. They want me to believe the V2K and RNM in me is being broadcast from her location. And what the fuck is "HOMELAND SECURITY" doing about this shit? I think stumbling over their own dicks maybe? Just like they did and are doing with the Havana Syndrome https://ecency.com/fyrstikken/@fairandbalanced/i-am-the-only-motherfucker-on-the-internet-pointing-to-a-direct-source-for-voice-to-skull-electronic-terrorism

👎 spaminator

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@hivebuzz · Mar 7 '22

Congratulations @dtam! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):

<table><tr><td><img src="https://images.hive.blog/60x70/http://hivebuzz.me/@dtam/upvoted.png?202203051551"></td><td>You received more than 400 upvotes.<br>Your next target is to reach 500 upvotes.</td></tr>
</table>

<sub>_You can view your badges on [your board](https://hivebuzz.me/@dtam) and compare yourself to others in the [Ranking](https://hivebuzz.me/ranking)_</sub>
<sub>_If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word_ `STOP`</sub>



**Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:**
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###### Support the HiveBuzz project. [Vote](https://hivesigner.com/sign/update_proposal_votes?proposal_ids=%5B%22199%22%5D&approve=true) for [our proposal](https://peakd.com/me/proposals/199)!

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@steevc · Mar 7 '22

Nice pics. Note that the teamuk tag is for people in the UK.

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@teamuksupport · Mar 7 '22

Hi @dtam, 
 Thank you for participating in the #teamuk curated tag. We have upvoted your quality content. 
 For more information visit our discord https://discord.gg/8CVx2Am

👍 teamuksupport

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properties (23)vote details (1)

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