Hitting a wall

Ok, I need some ideas from all y'all.

I seem to have hit a wall photographically when it comes to underwater stuff. I have a (self-imposed) deadline of May to put together a portfolio of shots for a coffee-table book project I am working on, and while the land based stuff is coming along ok (albeit slow), I just cannot find inspiration with underwater shots.

I want to get away from the typical formulaic stuff - want something different & unique. With topsides shooting, I find I can usually work through it simply by keeping at it, but it doesnt seem to be working here. I run a bleeding dive shop and I have had zero photos that I consider keepers this year. I think part of it is actually a case of familiarity with my reefs leading to me being visually jaded.

I'm going to keep at it, but anyone else here been through something similar and have some ideas?

It doesnt help that the one week I am away, we have a damn 10m+ whale go by 4m above the divers. Grrrrr.

Vandit

Tough one to answer.

I think such inspiration comes from all sorts of sources. Certainly exposing yourself to images (underwater, above water, photographic, non-photographic) will generate some ideas.

Maybe with diving on your doorstep you don't build up the same motivation/desperation to shoot that the rest of us get sitting at home waiting to go diving. Sitting at home I always have a million ideas flashing through my head of what I want to try next time I am underwater. I never get through them all.

As a shock tactic - why not do a few dives without your camera (and not looking after students/divers). The frustration of not being able to shoot might fire up those creative juices.

Alex

As a shock tactic - why not do a few dives without your camera (and not looking after students/divers). The frustration of not being able to shoot might fire up those creative juices.

Oh you know that whale is going to come round when you're without the camera.

Never forget that desperation is the mother of invention!

I am still mastering the technical aspects myself, but in Jim Church's little gem (composition guide) he mentions doing a viewfinder dive. just take the viewfinder and look through it to "see" compositions. (not practicle anymore with the nikonos gone, but you get the idea).

Thanks for the ideas, all.

Alex - yeah, I am trying a variant of what you suggested: am going on a liveaboard next month to Burma Banks. Will try diving without a camera for a couple of days as well, and also go shoot at some sites that we dont normally visit. Also have ordered some macro books from Amazon for inspiration.

Drew - oh man, dont get me started... I *LIVE* Sod's law when it comes to stuff like this.

John - true about desperation. But in this case, I have a somewhat stretchable deadline, and so I think desperation will equal procrastination.

Gerard - this seems to be the main idea I am getting here: go to a dive site and just scout for subjects and look for interesting things, and then come back and shoot them.

My thing is, if I can visualize X shots that I want to get, I can go about getting them. It is that visualization that is coming up blank. The books and just "seeing" should help, I suppose.

Cheers for the ideas, guys.

Vandit

I know the frustration of getting unique photos. It seems everything has been done and all rare critters have been photoed to death. Recently, judges at a major competition automatically discounted all pygmy seahorse photos from consideration because they are now soooo "common". It didn't matter the exposure, composition ....

What is the future winners if composition and critters, however common, are no longer important.

IMHO setting a specific goal or challenge is a good way to make you think outside the square.

In the past have picked a specific critter, and focused only on that until I got a sweet shot.

For the last month I have been shooting a 10.5mm fisheye exclusively. Even in cruddy vis, deep dives, and all types of light to push my envelope of compfort. I would very rarely use this lens here (only twice before). Not all the shots have worked, but its been great to see some other possibilities ...

Try to take pics of something you don't normally photograph and/ or try humor.

Thanks, guys.

LnDr & S Mermaid - I just me a 2x Macromate adapter and am going to go out and try to do some extreme macro stuff on a patch of sand and seagrass which is usually good for some interesting little critters (just yesterday, I saw a kind of pipefish I hadnt seen before - unfortunately, was teaching confined water and the students didnt exactly understand why I was so excited about a strand of weed... ).

Vandit

When I can't come up with an idea, I go and see a movie (I have seen plenty by now). I guess you don't have that option in the Andamans.

Maybe classic art and graphic design can give some ideas. Patterns, shapes...

/c

One of my old contemporaries from the advertising photography world drily observed that "all underwater pictures look the same".

Is that because, rather like horticultural photographers, we are all choosing similar subjects in a very specialized area?

My editor thought that I had breathed a breath of fresh air into my pictures after I bought the 10-17mm zoom. The same subjects looked different. That was thanks to reading about it on wetpixel.

I had half a million trannies in my film library alone. Then I went digital. I am still taking the same pictures but thanks to different camera equipment, the ability to rattle off a lot more frames on the same subject, and different processing software and tools, they look different. What a cheat!!!

I had half a million trannies in my film library alone.

Now thats a different story all together !!!!!!!

Did they enjoy the pictures while in there ?????

Dive safe

Dean(using simons connection)B

Trust the brits to bring lower the conversation... and is Simon really Dean in drag or vice versa?

Less of then racist and area'ist comments just because we have the quickest wit...

Dive safe

Dean(or is it)B

Funny... are the british a race or a rash?

Whoa !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now Then Drew, People will think you have something against the might of the English empire if you use comments like that ...

Tut tut, shame on you airing your opinions on a forum such as 'WETPIXEL' I thought we were amongst friends...

Dive safe

Dean(On Mr Spears connection)B

I also find that my best shots are of scenes that I have been daydreaming about or visualizing well in advance of the trip. Maybe there is a way you can get excited again about some of the critters you have gotten used to. Learn something new about their natural history or behavior. Those things that you have gotten too used to may be a lot more interesting if you find that you can observe them doing something you have never noticed before. Buy a new lens or port! Shoot something on the margins of the area you normally visit. Dive in conditions that you nromally don't think are optimal for phography. As others have said, watch your favorite film or look at your favorite photographer's images. Whatever makes you excited about the process and your subjects is likely to help you get better images. Underwater photography should make you feel like you just discovered gold, and there is plenty of "gold" still out there.

Pat

Try some topside creative techniques.

20 steps to the next photo - take 20 fin kicks and take a photo there, then another 20 then take a photo ...

forward and reverse - take a photo then turn around and take a photo behind you (might need a little adjustment underwater)

get closer, closer, closer - sounds like you are doing that with the super macro option

only use 1 type of lens - earlier suggestion

take 3 frames - for a specific subject take 3 deliberately alternate carefully framed shots

have a photo holiday - take a couple of dives without the camera (and without students or dive guiding) just enjoy the diving and relax - learn to see without the pressure of the camera

Monochrome? Alex is a master of colour, but his shark over sand ripples shot is one that has had me experimenting. Obviously, only one or two in a book, but it might be worth doing.

Tim

B)