PHILIPPINES TROPICAL UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY

Philippines Tropical Underwater Photography: We ventured into underwater photography on our recent travels to the Philippines and were blown away by the diversity of coral reefs and tropical fish in the small selection of waters we explored while snorkelling! On top of the whale shark and Pawikan turtles we saw,  the colours and underwater landscapes were breathtaking and sometimes a little unnerving when swimming through what seemed like giant canyons at times.  We are truly excited about exploring some of these waters but doing so with experienced master divers who can guide us as we go deeper and further into uncharted territories.

We are very excited about exploring new potential dive sites around Mati in Davao Oriental where we know some of the richest diversity of marine life exists.  We are working with marine biologists to ensure that any developments for tourism are done in a responsible manner to promote an eco-tourism underwater adventure!

However I must admit that there is a large fear factor involved as I push myself to go deeper and learn to scuba with the pros! But I am up for the adventure and relishing the challenge to capture more underwater photographs! Holding your breath while trying to capture an image and thinking about composition, lighting and subject matter is a new challenging experience but a whole heap of fun!

PHOTOGRAPHY: PHILIPPINES TROPICAL UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY

All images were captured using the GoPro HD Hero 2 without an LCD screen on the back! This proved to be difficult but also freeing at the same time.  It reminded me of film photography because you don’t know what you have captured until you develop the film or in this case, return to the laptop to upload the images from the SD card.  I had to think about the wide angle view which the GoPro uses and then imagine what the composition would look like as I dove down to capture the shot!

We will be investing in professional underwater housing for our Nikon gear to give us more control over the process of capturing the images underwater. The hunt is now on! But for now, our GoPro will have to suffice and with its capability to capture High Resolution video, we are happy with this as a stop-gap.  We will be uploading the video footage captured on the GoPro soon!