If you talk about cave diving with someone that doesn’t do it, the typical question is “why do you do it?”. I compiled this short video using footage shot over a few weeks in North Florida. We added a few interviews and narration to help convey some of the message, which I hope comes through.

The special trip is part of Mike’s Extraordinary Expeditions program, and is an additional service offered on board Spoilsport by Mike and myself. Over the course of the week I’ll be running through the finer points of underwater photography, with the end-goal being killer shark shots. Basic and advanced techniques will be discussed, practiced and critiqued in order to help you get the shark shots you want.

The workshop will include formal sessions throughout the week, however I much prefer to break into very small groups or even 1:1 to discuss specific techniques depending on the experience level and objectives of participants. The workshop will cater for DSLR, point and shoot and strobe photographers. In additional to still photography, I plan to taking a few GoPro Hero2 cameras to see what interesting point of view shark footage we can grab.

MV Spoilsport is the best liveaboard vessel I’ve dived from and perfectly setup for underwater photographers. With lots of space, dedicated camera tables on the dive deck, camera rentals, and crew that know what they’re doing – the experience is simply awesome. I’ll also be taking advantage of Mike Ball rebreather service, so if you’re into CCR diving this is a perfect opportunity to join us and maximise the potential that the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef has to offer.

1. Flat lens – You’ll need an aftermarket flat lens to user the GoPro underwater (at least until GoPro release one of their own; due Q1 2012). They all work pretty well, though the DIY screw on acrylic solutions (e.g. Oculus R5) tend to be cheaper than the modified housings (e.g. Eye of Mine). Either way, watch out for vignetting (black corners) which can result when the camera is set to Wide mode with a small flat lens; using Medium will remove the black corners but reduce your field of view.
2. Secure It – secure your GoPro properly with a lanyard or tether. The standard mounting system is pretty good, though has been known to fail unexpectedly underwater. Also be sure not to make the classic mistake of wearing it on the elastic head mount and then striding into the water – it can go flying off your head.
3. Turn off the LCD Bacpac – the LCD BacPac is great to help with framing, but it does suck the life out of the battery. Turn if off when you can to conserve battery power.
4. Get close – you’ve heard it before, get close to your subject, then get closer. This will increase detail and prevent them from being miniature objects in your video. Using the widest field of view that you can (without vignetting) will also let you get closer to the action. Minimising the distance to subject will also make the most of you video lights.
5. Stabilise Yourself – save the roller coaster rides for the theme park; stabilise yourself before recording action and consider mounting your GoPro to tray/handle rig to give you a better grip. Panning and zooming are key elements of videography, but consider omitting them underwater if you can’t deliver stable video. Be ruthless when editing and remove unstable video.
6. Avoid Exposure Shifts – the GoPro can’t handle big ranges in light and dark. The sun and even the light gradient from depth to the surface has too much range for the GoPro to handle, so keep this in mind when framing your images. 
7. Feed it light – without enough light the Hero dies (just joking). Feed it rich light, and it’ll return nice saturated colour. Use wide, high power video lights  (2000lm+) or dive in kiddy pool depths.
8. Use filters wisely – filters can make or break you, so use the right type of filter for your colour water and stick to the shallows. With no ability to manually white balance the video, you need to put a lot of faith in the GoPro software. Typical red filters work best in shallow, clear blue water in the middle of the day; if you’re shooting in different conditions ask whether the filter is the right thing for you. Gel type filters, such as the Auto Magic Filter can be used on the inside of the housing if you don’t want the expense of, or can’t use the screw on type.
9. Point of View – use them for what they’re designed for; capture the world from a point of view – it needn’t be your own. Don’t expect to shoot a National Geographic special, work to the Hero’s strengths and use them where a normal, bigger and more expense camera can’t go.
10. Hog the Glory– edit your video so that is tells a story, and share it with the world, or at least your friends on Vimeo.com. Use a simple editing program (e.g. iMovie for Mac, Movie Maker for PC) to get started.

Good shooting, damien.

This video showcases two spectacular caves that are hidden beneath what is casually known as the “Mill Pond”, near Marianna in North Florida.

Whilst known for is crystal clear water and white rock, the first cave in the video (Twin Cave) is challenging to enter and requires a certain amount of commitment.

Jackson Blue (the second cave), in contrast is known for its easy entry, clear water and high flow. We used scooters to penetrate deep into the system, as even on rebreathers the dive took 4-5 hours to execute.

Video was shot using a Canon 7D, Tokina 10-17mm, Aquatica housing and Silent Submersion scooters (Magnus + Minnus).

I’ll be running an underwater photography workshop along the way, so it’s not just going to be the same clear blue warm water, coral, tropical fish, wrecks and Tusker beer that you may have experienced before. The workshop will focus on targeted areas of photography and include both targeted formal sessions and informal tutorials and mentoring. A large focus of the workshop will be on the use of light, both natural and artificial. We will be taking over a heap of extra strobes, cameras and video lights that you can try and see what works with your setup. The workshop is included in the trip costs, which is already great value at $1699 per diver, ex Sydney.

If you’re like me and don’t have much annual leave, this trip is also a winner as you only need to take 4 working days off work! Trip dates are 28th Dec – 4th Jan (inclusive). For more information, contact me or book directly with St George Underwater Centre.

As something different, we’ll be putting together a trip video with a twist. I have a little GoPro Hero2, which will be the eyes and ears of the trip (it needs a name). We’re going to hand it out and ask you to treat it like your best friend, let it capture your trip. It’ll go underwater, on boats, planes, cars, even go to the bar and buy a round of beers – nowhere will be safe from the GoPro. At the end of the trip, we will compile the whackiest trip video in history – and it’ll be your to take home free.

It’s all about buoyancy and trim. Let’s first start by
assuming that you have a neutrally buoyant (or close enough to) DPV. Stacking a
negatively buoyant mount, strap, camera housing, lights, etc… does the obvious
and makes the scooter sink. You’re now riding this beast that wants to nose dive,
meaning you now have to angle the scooter up to compensate. This forces the
video angle upward (a real problem when you’re trying to shoot bottom
composition) and burns power unnecessarily. The scooter/camera rig can also
become quite heavy to hold for stationary shots too, making it physically a
challenge to hold the rig.

My solution is relatively straight forward; that is, simply
ensure the camera rig (including mount and strap) is as neutral as possible. In
video mode, my Aquatica 7D housing doesn’t have too many options, it basically
down to what size dome you have. My 6” dome is small and has less drag, but the
8” provides much needed buoyancy and does a reasonable job of getting the
housing neutral.

The real problems comes in the form of lighting. Light heads
and more specifically their batteries are negatively buoyant and need to be
compensated. I’ve resorted to using high pressure plumbing pipe (sealed at each
end) to provide positive lift. It’s effective, cheap and nearly indestructible,
though the crush depth is hotly debated in technical diving circles to be
anything from 65-180m. Determining how much lift to provide is simply done
using a trial and error approach. I’ve gone with 2” diameter pressure pipe and
12” in length. Two of these provides more than enough lift for my setup, so I
do the negative adjustments using lead weight on the pipes. Net result is a
neutral rig that is reasonably adjustable as my setups changes. In my opinion,
close enough is good enough here but I don’t want to be fighting with
scooter/camera buoyancy on deep dives.

I’ve mounted the pipes on either side of the scooter using a
cylinder weight mounting system by Bright Weights. I can’t speak for the weight
system, but once we sewed a couple of industrial elastic loops into the harness
system it worked perfectly. Using Velcro strips, it’s super easy to attach to
the scooter when a dive requires it. What’s important to me is to not mess with
the scooter’s buoyancy as at the last minute, I may execute a dive without the camera
and quickly reconfigure the DPV for no-camera whilst on the boat deck.

Mounting the Camera

Nothing came easy here. Before buying a mount, I researched
both the Silent Submersion and Dive-Xtras video mounts, though not much info
was forthcoming apart from a few forum comments. It was clear however that
neither with support my Aquatica DSLR natively, and that both have mounting
holes targeted at more traditional video housings like Gates and Stingray. I
ultimately bought the Silent Submersion version, so mounting the camera
required a custom adapter that would allow mating between the three ¼” holes on
my Aquatica and grid patterns on the mounting plate.

The adapter we made up is simply a block of alloy turned on
a lathe. It has four holes for the mounting plate, and is recessed with another
three holes for the camera (see diagram). Something to keep in mind is that
depending on you dome size, the camera will need to be raised higher off the
mounting plate. Since I have both the 6” and 8” domes, I created the base
adapter to suit the 6” dome and an extender for the 8” dome so that weight and
drag could be reduced. Delrin (aka acetal) would have been a preferable
material (due to weight and corrosion), though availability in large diameters
(at reasonable cost) was a problem for us. Ultimately though, my DSLR has 3 *
¼”  holes in the base which screw into
the adapter, which in turn screws into the mounting plate.

Videography

After going to the cost and effort of mounting the camera on
a scooter, I’m very happy to say there is a payoff. You obviously get the
ability to shoot video whilst moving, either forward facing or angled which
shoots difference perspectives underwater (not just up-down or left-right). You
also get the added benefit of stability since the DPV is near neutral but has a
significant mass. Net result is the scooter dampens the motion, removes the
wobbles and the propeller shroud even becomes a nice hold point that you can
rest on your chest (watch out of the trigger!). This is particularly beneficial
for the DSLR shooter, since these housing suffer greatly from stability issues.

Once mounted to the scooter I’ve almost exclusively used the
propeller shroud as a grips/hold point. It reduce ergonomics whilst shooting
video, but this wasn’t the greatest anyway. Vision to the 3” screen is also
reduced due to the shroud/handle, though this depends on the angle and height
that you hold the camera at. I also found if the rig was negative, holding it
at the correct screen height becomes very tiresome.

I dive using both Dive-Xtras and Silent Submersion scooters,
and feel they’re both great and each has their benefits. For video however, I
do prefer my Cuda 400 as it has an electronic speed control and the N-19 I have
does not. This allows you to quickly adjust speed whilst shooting and also
match the speed of other divers perfectly. With the N-19, you have to stop to
change speeds which can ruin the clip you’re shooting. One technique to match
speed on the N-19 is to purposely cause drag with your body/fins to slow down
and maintain the clip – not the best but it does work.

Rotational torque and levelling the image whilst under way
as also key points of consideration. I’ve found it takes a few second to get
the torque under control when starting off and stopping, so I factor this in my
clip. Levelling the camera also presents a challenge at times and can be
compounded if the camera mount is not naturally centred on the DPV body.

Overall I think DPV mounted video is a very positive thing,
though this opinion is for reasons other than what I had originally expected. I
first thought that it’d be all about the video you could shoot whilst in motion,
this is good, but the stability for me is where the value is. I imagine this
could be different for those with more traditional (and stable) video
rigs.

Still Photography

Perhaps ignorantly, I once thought that mounting my DSLR
camera to a scooter would make camera handling easier on complex technical
dives. I thought that I could use the DPV as a platform to mount the camera rig
to whilst travelling, namely during ascent/descents and when scootering around
large caves/wrecks). In short, I was very wrong.

Mounting the camera rig to the scooter can be fiddly and
time consuming. It’s not a hopeless task, but not something I want to be
repeatedly doing during a dive. For this reason I rarely scooter mount my rig
whilst shooting stills, preferring instead to wrap it up and clip it off as
this results in less drag. The scooter itself becomes a pain too, as you either
let it blow in the current whilst your hands are occupied with the camera
(becoming an entanglement issue), or again clip it off like a sling. I prefer
the latter approach, though at times am lazy and drop the scooter for a sneaky
shot or two. For this reason, I ensure my scooter is trimmed slightly positive
so that it floats off the bottom causing less of an issue.

As we use the scooters to rapidly descend on deep dives, if
the site is not large or I expect to be in one spot for a while I’ll clip the
scooter off to a cave line or part of the wreck. I’ve found it easier and quick
to detach from the scooter, shoot and then re-attach, than it is to side clip
the scooter to yourself and keep shooting. How your gear is configured and
whether you’re wearing you bailout/stage cylinders left only or left-right is
definitely a key consideration. Scooters do offer a compelling argument to left
only stage configuration in my opinion.

For sample video, visit http://damiensiviero.com/category/video/

A flight from Sydney took me to Denpasar (Bali), then another double hop took me onto Manado which is the closest major city to Lembeh Strait. From there an 60 minute drive takes you to Bintung, which is the township/city closest to the strait and diving resort operators. The strait itself is smaller than I perceived from maps and is very much what I consider a working harbour. Lots of commercial fishing and locally made timber boats use the port.

My diving and accommodation was kindly provided by Eco-Divers who run a distinctly different operation in the strait from most of the other operators. Each day, we’d drive from Lembeh Cottages to a wharf (about 25 minutes) and would spend the whole day on a liveaboard like vessel (aka Nautica), eventually returning to the hotel at night. The standard Lembeh model would be to stay at a resort on the water’s edge of the strait, using the dive boats to do 2, 3, or even 4 dives a day. The day boat is nice for what it is, with normal toilets, lots of space, mains power, camera tables and even wireless Internet. All diving is done off spacious and fast speed boat tenders.

According to the Eco-Divers’ website their format is optimal because the day boat is moored in the middle of the strait and offers easy access to all sites, however in reality most of the resorts are only a few hundred metres from the mooring site anyway so this is a mute argument in my opinion. If I was to return, I would definitely dive with one of the resorts on the water’s edge.

My first dive was on an incoming tide at a site called Nudi Retreat 2. My initial reaction was WOW, the water was relatively clear (20m visibility), very warm (29c) and there was an abundance of marine life, coral, and typical reef fish. I thought, this is not what I expected, there should be black sand, bad visibility and weird alien like creatures about the place. As it turned out, that one dive would be extremely different to next 36 that I would do.

My second dive, and much of the dives I did on the trip turned out to be pure muck dives. They’d involve lots of swimming to keep up with guides, grey muddy/silty sand (not sure I saw this BLACK sand they speak of), 20m average depth and a wide variety of critters. What you get in return for this ordinary dive, is to see and in particular take photos of some pretty spectacular subjects. I had to work for it though, both doing research and asking the guides to take me to given places for certain critters.

I saw mimic octopi, pygmy sea horses, ribbon eels, mating mandarin fish, ornate ghost pipefish, predating frog/angler fish, every type of shrimp known to man and even and the world’s smallest harlequin shrimp. What I didn’t see however (through no lack of trying), included the lacy and prettier scorpion fish, wonderpus octopus, flamboyant cuttlefish, blue-ringed octopus and normal sized harlequin shrimp. Now, I’m not complaining as I got to see a lot, but I’m highlighting this as my expectations were obviously higher than Lembeh’s ability to deliver on the two weeks I was there. I imagine this is due to some of the reviews that I’ve read, so don’t assume you’ll see everything and do seize the moment when you do; you may not see it again even during a longer stay.

One surprising dive I did was the Malawi wreck (aka Tanduk Rusa), a 60m Japanese freighter sunk in 1943 during WW2. Being a keen wreck diver I did this dive a couple of times, but it’s well worth a visit for either being a wreck or the macro life that adorn the hull. Sitting in about 30m in the middle of the strait, the wreck is subject to currents but is easily dived with some planning. Penetration into the front and rear cargo holds is extremely easy (although they’re now empty), and for those more ambitious there are lots of dark and scary holes I found interesting. The huge propeller is also of note and worth a visit, though due to the reduced visibility I did not bother with any wide angle shots.

Unfortunately no review of Lembeh Strait is complete without mentioning the unsightly rubbish and litter that plagues the area. Rubbish floats on the surface and hits you in the head when you jump in, it collects on the bottom and then there are the almost life like mid-water floating plastic bags (my personal favourite). I’ve been told this has become much worse since the tsunamis, regardless though it is a major issue when you’re on a nature based holiday.

Diving Lembeh Strait is more like flying around the surface of the moon than it is like diving a coral reef. It’s grey and almost crater like, but to the photographer it’s serious playground. Work hard and you will be reward with all manner of critters that result in some spectacular images. Don’t forget your macro kit though, as you’ll need greater than 1:1 at times to do some of the shots justice. My final thoughts on Lembeh Strait were, and still are, why the hell would you want to dive there if you didn’t have a camera? Some people are obviously into small and weird critters, but for me I’ll take the clear water, big fish and beauty of a coral reef over the muck diving of Lembeh Strait any day, so in the end I consider Lembeh Strait a photography destination, not a diving one.

More photos from the Lembeh Strait trip are online on flickr.

Early on in my closed-circuit rebreather (CCR) training my instructor once said “that camera is going to kill you”. He also forced me to conduct the vast majority my training either carrying or using a DSLR camera rig. His sobering words made me carefully consider how and where I would take a camera in the water from then on. Underwater photography presents a serious task load on any diver, so the concepts in this article apply also to standard diving as well as tec diving, loosely defined here as any diving conducted past accepted norms of depth and/or overhead environments.

Understanding Risk

From the start of our open water course we are told that scuba diving has risks; that is true but no where do they become more real than when tec diving with a camera. Understanding what additional risks a camera puts on us is critical in mitigating and/or accepting them.

We are confronted with various types of risks that effect different things. Different risks effect different aspects of our diving and photography, such as safety, equipment, mission objective and so on. Each risk needs to be assessed and if practical mitigated as small issues can snowball into bigger ones. I say “if practical” as it is my opinion that certain risks are best left alone and accepted, because the overhead of eliminating it is too great – it is up to each of us to decide where that line is.

During the execution of a typical dive I consider the ascent and descent phases to be of particular risk to me. We dive in high current, rough seas and limited visibility more often than not. The result is ascents and descents that require particular attention and often two hands to hang on, manipulate equipment, etc… To manage this risk I clip off my camera, but in doing some argue that I am at risk of losing it due to a clip failure. Personally I accept the risk of equipment loss (ultimately a financial issue) to manage what I consider a real issue to my safety. Not holding a camera rig frees up both my hands and mind for other more critical tasks.

Lack of attention/awareness (often described as complacency) is another area of high risk whilst tec diving. Managing deco time, gas, PPO2, and so on are critical to executing a dive safely. Underwater photography does a great job at distracting us from these tasks. My approach to address this problem is to dedicate a block of time I use to shoot a given subject. I estimate the time required to shoot a subject (e.g. 3-5 minutes), assess the variables (gas, time, etc…) and if it is within parameters I will proceed. If not, I will either not shoot or revise my objective to fit within the allocated limited. Maintaining awareness of how long I am shooting for and what I am achieving helps give me reference to overall dive time.  Safety divers are a great solution too, though unfortunately a rare commodity in non-commercial circles. On many dives my buddy/model becomes the safety diver by default, and if he/she says we’re going or calls the dive that it and the camera is away.

Equipment Overload

The hallmark of a tec diver surely has to be the amount of equipment that is carried on a dive. Rebreathers, twin tanks, stage cylinders, reels, canister lights, computers, and so on are all carried to safely execute a typical dive. When we add a sizeable camera to this, it can quickly become overwhelming and dangerous.

One approach to addressing this scenario is by managing smaller issues one by one or even eliminating them before the dive begins. For example, hook/suicide clips can make handling gear difficult, so switching them out for standard boltsnaps often makes handling easier and avoids the snowball effect.

The amount of equipment we carry adds greatly to the task load underwater, so if you do not need it leave it at home. The bare minimum of equipment can still be a lot and the best way to deal with it all is incrementally. If you can deal with a single small stage cylinder, don’t add a reel and canister light until you can do that too. Your camera rig is the last piece of equipment you want to add, and even then perhaps start out with no strobes, then small arms and finally multi segment ones.

A clean, tidy and consistent equipment setup will make tec diving easier to execute. The same is true with your camera rig. Strobe sync chords (particularly thin optic fibre ones) should not have exposed loops or other loose ends that can snag and cause entanglement issues. Making your rig neutral (or near neutral) in the water will make it easy to handle and when appropriate clip off. Consider buoyancy arms that provide positive lift for this purpose. The smaller you rig gets, the easier it will be to manage.

Handling your rig

One of the biggest issues I faced when I began doing complex tec dives with a large camera rig was what to do with it when executing tasks (e.g. gas switch, pickup a cylinder, run line, deploy a SMB). Having the ability to clip off your rig and free up both hands is at times critical.

Multiple ways to clip off a rig exist and your particular equipment configuration may dictate your best approach but for me it is often to clip the rig off to my right d-ring. To enable this, my housing has a single boltsnap (with large eye for finger insertion) attached to the base of the right grip. With the strobe and arms wrapped up tight, this makes my rig reasonably small and discretely tucks in behind my twins or rebreather. It does not clutter my front chest area or dangle below me, which is a major issue in wreck/cave penetration. When clipped off, I always have the front and rear covers on to protect the port and viewfinder. Both are made from neoprene and are tied together with a piece of 3mm bungee with a boltsnap at one end. When using the camera, the covers are clipped off to the right hip d-ring and again float upwards from there and neatly out of the way.

My experience with most cave and wreck photography is that it can be either mission specific of opportunistic. With the former, we set objectives (e.g. shoot a given section of cave) and then plan depth/time/distances around that objective. Opportunistic dives are very different and I tend to fit photographic opportunities into a given dive plan; this often makes sense when I’ve not dived a wreck before and don’t really know what I’m going to find.

Years ago I used a tether or camera strap with a quick release buckle and squiggly coil. I quickly found out that for deep wreck diving this was not a good idea as it would snag and catch on everything. Simple tasks like removing a stage cylinder or inflating a SMB became a burden; it was also the source of the “that camera will kill you” comment by my instructor. The logic behind a long tether is that when dropped, the camera will hang below you and out of the way. In practice I found it to be an irritating distraction hitting my legs (when vertical) and an obstacle between my buddy and I (should proximity be required).

Many divers talk about cave and wreck line as coming alive underwater. Unless managed properly, it snakes and weaves its way around as if it were possessed. DSLR rigs, with their controls/dials, strobe arms and clamps appear to be a natural magnet to guidelines. Other than holding the camera in a position clear of the line (not always possible and also a high task load), a clean and tidy rig that is stowed clear is the best way I have found to deal with line entanglement. Taut line and awareness is the key to success, so pay attention to where the line is and how it may attach you camera. Also apply particular care when deploying a SMB at depth as an inflated SMB snagged on the camera attached to you is not fun.

Coming from a cave background, one area I do not compromise on is lighting. I always dive with a primary light as standard and never rely on my on camera lighting for safety. More often than not my on- camera lighting is more than adequate and I don’t bother using my primary, but if I decided to leave the camera on the surface or ditch it mid dive that leaves me in a less than ideal situation.

Rebreathers and Photography

Closed Circuit Rebreathers (CCR) offer the tec diver a virtually unlimited gas supply and greatly extend time underwater. Contrary to popular myths, CCRs do not make you immune to nitrogen and they do not make you undetectable to marine life.  For an overview of the types of rebreathers, visit my rebreather guide at http://damiensiviero.com/rebreather-guide/.

If you consider time and light as the biggest constraints in underwater photography; the former is addressed in a big way by CCRs. Reducing gas limits and optimal PPO2s enable you to spend more time in the no-decompression zone and/or far less time decompressing. Net result is you can spend more time shooting, but this comes at a cost of complexity and monitoring. The latter is critical for the photographer, as instead of the focus being on gas volumes it now shifts to PPO2 monitoring. For this reason I consider a Heads Up Display (HUD) that conveys PPO2 information to your mask very important for the photographer.

Being stealthy underwater also provides the photographer with an advantage, but it is in my opinion often overstated. Marine creatures are not stupid, they know you are there but seem to have much more tolerance for a diver when you are not spewing out noisy bubbles. Shooting sharks and schooling fish are particular scenarios where CCRs provide an advantage because they do not emit bubbles. Bubble-less diving is also an advantage when shooting macro, as it results in a calmness that tends to make creatures more amendable to being photographed.

Deep dives and nitrogen narcosis present a serious problem to underwater photographers. Typically, divers either do their best to cope with the narcosis or use trimix, a combination of oxygen, helium and nitrogen, to remove or reduce the narcotic effect. Whilst very effective, helium is a relatively expensive gas, which results in people either deep diving on air or running it lean to save money. Due to the low levels of gas consumed, CCRs make diving even on liberal trimix quite affordable.

Although other forms exist, rebreathers are commonly either manual (aka KISS style) or electronically controlled. Both have their merits, though I have dived both types extensively and find the electronically controlled rebreather to be more suited to the type of diving I do. KISS style units require a busier hands on approach in addition to the same level of monitoring and for the photographer, I consider the electronic CCR with their alarms and automation to be a more appropriate solution.

Diving with models

Unfortunately in tec diving competent and willing models are hard to come by. Understandably, not many people want to spend what little time they have on a deep wreck or cave being told to shine their light here or move a bit over there. My advice is if you find a good model, treat them well! Consider their safety first as it can be just as task loading (if not more) being the model than the photographer.

In caves with flow it is often easier for a model to retrace their path giving you another opportunity to take the shot, than it is to have them hold a stationary position back-finning against the flow. The forward movement also pulls back their equipment and yields a more aesthetic body position.

Conclusion

Despite advances in equipment, training and attitudes, tec diving is still a dangerous activity and sadly people do die. Applying our craft of underwater photography in caves, wrecks and at extreme depths only adds to the risk already present on those dives. Although you can find yourself a tec instructor and get certified with relative ease, developing the skills and confidence necessary to safely execute a photographic dive is not as easy. Finally, be prepared to put the camera away, or if it comes to you or the camera even ditch it, as in the end you can always repeat the dive and cameras are replaceable – you are not.