Hi there,

Did anyone try this? Not sure if I want to, but the buddy that is willing to model does not want to go into caves.

I'm fairly experienced in cave diving, but not shooting in caves. Basic idea was: camera on a tripod with interval shooting enabled, swim around and pose with a slave strobe on my back. Pretty sure, it is going to be as difficult as it sounds easy, so looking for experiences, helping me determine if I want to go down that route or not.

Cave to try it would be a shallow one (less than 10m) with little silt, dive time virtually unlimited with a CCR. 

Thanks everyone, appreciate all input 🙏

honestly, your idea may get you an image or two, but I am more keying in on the fact that cave/ccr/taking images/alone/shallow on CCR is starting to add a bunch of layers and a snowball effect regards dive safety is waiting for you.

Just my take as a cave instructor trainer and someone that is pretty comfortable in caves on CCR taking images. 

On 3/23/2025 at 3:28 PM, cerich said:

honestly, your idea may get you an image or two, but I am more keying in on the fact that cave/ccr/taking images/alone/shallow on CCR is starting to add a bunch of layers and a snowball effect regards dive safety is waiting for you.

Just my take as a cave instructor trainer and someone that is pretty comfortable in caves on CCR taking images. 

Appreciate your input regarding safety @cerich !

I have managed to give to overall idea a try, and thought I'd add my experience and safety measures taken to the forum.

Safety before the photo dive:

Location is a cave I know very well, easy to dive. I've dived the cave two days prior to the photo shoot for a tmx dive, and during deco selected the spots for taking pictures. Aimed for a depth of ~8-12m, close to the exit (<200m) checked for silt (tried to stir some up by slapping the bottom), and then picked spots where there was none.

During the photo dive, I first prepared the spots, i.e. adding REM markers few meters before and after (not visible in the photos), in case of loss of visibility (which is highly unlikely, see the commet about silt) that would give me directions in less then a minute. CCR: additionally to monitoring the CCR as by habit, I've checked PPO2 after each task, before moving to the next one.

I then set up the video lights for the images (2x6000+1x15000 lumens; learning: I need bigger ones or I'll use remote strobes the next time to avoid high ISO and slow shutter). Afterwards placed the camera on the tripod, did some test shots without model to set the light to my liking (strobe position and power).

Once that was sorted, switched the camera to interval shooting (~30-45sec delay, 10-20 images every 2-5sec). Changed powersettings on my divelights, started the interval series, swam over and posed.

Outcome? Attached one as an example.

Overall, I'm really happy with how everything went. I found it a really enjoyable and relaxing dive, time was no limitation (dive was about 2h, CCR still had 4+ hours scrubber capacity at the end), no model that wants to see more of the cave and gets bored, plenty of time to try and adjust. The only thing I'll change for the next dive is remote light, either strobes (preferred for images) or more powerful video lights (preferred for setting up and managing). Longterm, I'll replace the 35€ tripod I bought for trying this.

Is this the new way of underwater cave photography? Certainly not, but for some caves, I will definitely work like this.