Drift Diving

I am looking for any pointers or helpful hints photographing while drift diving. We are taking a trip to Cozumel, and only had shot video in the past. This is my first time shooting stills while drifting. I have recently purchased a Sea & Sea DX2 with Sea & Sea YS 110a strobes.

Hi Captain,

My experience at Coz is limited, only a couple of weeks there but I found that drift diving with a rig is not a big problem. Generally in a lot of current you'll need to really tighten down your arm clamps. The water pressure will tend to fold up your strobes if you don't. There is so much structure there it's easy to find a spot out of the flow. The biggest problem will be trying to keep up with the group. If you find a nice subject to work on for a while the rest of the group can be long gone. We photo types can make it tough on the divemasters trying to keep everyone together on a drift dive.

Have fun,

Steve

I am looking for any pointers or helpful hints photographing while drift diving. We are taking a trip to Cozumel, and only had shot video in the past. This is my first time shooting stills while drifting. I have recently purchased a Sea & Sea DX2 with Sea & Sea YS 110a strobes.

Depends on the sites and how the currents are going. There are some dives where you just go along for the ride Sites further North can have stronger currents and if you are going to places like Barracuda (which is usually moving) you may not want to take the camera (not sure how much experience you have with diving, diving with a rig and currents, so not trying to be dismissive) And of course things change, some sites are normally strong currents, and others can be ripping or quiet. There were many times (when using my video camera) where I would just point forward and//or pan when the current took me on its way, was alot of fun.

But on many sites there will be times when there will be current then lulls, which are good for shooting. Deeper dives will usually have less current running, when you get over the side of walls etc. Also when coming up off of dives many sites have the reef running along the top of the wall and there are plenty of places to get lower and out of the current. Also a good idea in general to keep an eye on the group, sometimes if you get caught you can get ahead of them and then a duck and wait can be a good thing.

Keep an eye ahead and around when the current is running and see the subjects (larger ones of course, reef, larger life, turtles, etc.) ahead of time and guide yourself towards the shot and be prepared for the shot ahead of time as much as you can, you can usually get a shot or two in that way by holding position when you get there by kicking into the current a bit. Do not worry though too much and try to fight too much, you can burn alot of air trying to fight the current and get a shot - usually you can find another subject

Make sure to have a marker to put out on the surface and perhaps a whsitle also. The boats down there are really good and you are not going to get lost, but if you come up away from everyone else, good things to have. I have inflated the marker and spent some relaxing time waiting for the boat now and again myself

On my one visit to Cozumel I found the drift diving to not be a problem. What I found is that you would spot your subject up ahead and preplan your swoop down on it. Carefully picking your place to shoot from.

I was using a huge rig. It was not much of a problem.

WA, not a problem because as stated above you can spot the subject up ahead. With that said, I've missed many opportunities there due to the current. Choose a dive shop like Dive with Martin or the Scuba Club that will take you to places where you can also get macro and portrait stuff.

Just got back from COZ two days ago and here are my thoughts.

It was my second trip with my DSLR rig, the previous trip was only a 2 day event in Sept. so I feel your tension.

With stronger current dives, you must plan the shot as it passes as you just cannot get stopped to take the photo.

Keeping the strobes in place and handling the housing was no problem on any dives.

Wear a full wetsuit. There are plenty of little stinging things in the sand bottoms to attack your knees. I forgot mine, they only rented shorties, my knees show the results.

Many dive shops have short dive times. A shop by where I was staying was limiting dives to 50 minutes, according to others using them. I dove Aldora, paid more, had 1:20 to 1:30 hr dives for every dive. Check with your planned dive shop in advance.

I was really glad to use Aldora. While the boat and crew were what I expected, the real unexpected benefit was the other divers. The boat was full of people (all 4-6 of us) that paid extra to escape cattle boats and short dives. Made for a much better experience than I had expected. And once they all saw my DSLR rig, everyone was working to show me things to photograph, posing for me, etc. Loved the other divers as much/more than the Aldora staff.

Get DAN insurance or similar. A single treatment at the chamber is $4500. Insurance much less than $100.

LOVED Palancar Horseshoe. Giant swim-throughs, little current, plenty to see when we moved up to the shallows for the second half. Wished I had my 60mm micro for that dive based on the fish at the end but liked having the 10-17 during the first half. A magnificent 1.5 hr dive!

I followed advice given at Wetpixel and was glad I did. Test fire shots for exposure BEFORE you arrive at your shot. After a few trials, found what settings I needed for shots with sand and lots of white or very close subjects vs big walls with limited light, etc. Once the shot is in front of you, its too late to mess with the settings. Anticipation was important.

For example, when I saw a ray in the sand several times, I could stop on the bottom in advance, set up the camera/strobes, test fire into the sand and adjust as needed for the exposure I wanted with the distance I was striving for, then drift slowly to the subject without having to deal with equipment once I was there. That left both the ray and myself less stressed. I was able to photo close to the ray without ever making them nervous or move. Same with toad pictures, etc.

If you are running in a small, fast boat, a hooded windbreaker with no metal parts is hard to beat. I loved having mine. Same with wind pants. Plenty of cool north wind to chill you on the boat right now. I found mine at WalMart for next to nothing.

DO NOT MISS visiting Dive Adventuras via the ferry and diving the Cenotes for a day trip.

Here is a link to some shots I took there last week.

Cenotes shots at my website

Karen Doody was my contact at Dive Adventuras via email.

karen@diveaventuras.com

trip report to follow soon.