Clients Underwater

The best thing in life is finding that one thing that excites you.   I have it made because I have several things that excite me.    Anything where I am behind my camera, taking care of my bees, kayaking and working with my camera underwater.    If you never tried it, it is amazing.

The best thing about working underwater is you really have to know your camera, model and photographer.   There is no communications underwater, it is all about being comfortable with your surroundings.    I mainly work in my pool, with a black background but I have done a few things in the ocean.     I love working with brides and Trash the Dress type shoots.   Just a heads up, underwater photography will not ruin the dress, in fact I had one of my brides decide to do it because she had a BBQ stain and no one could get the stain out.   We did after a day of shooting.

What to Expect Underwater

What to expect when you do an underwater shoot?   Very easy, expect a lot of hard work, a lot of fun, and beautiful pictures.    I always try to talk to my clients first.   Find out what they are expecting.   Usually the first half hour is just trying to get it to look natural.    I tell my clients to go to the bathtub and fill it with water, go under for about 30 seconds with your eyes open and no air.    If you can do that, it will be ok.   If not, you will have issues.

Next if the outfits.   If your wedding dress too heavy, that is a big one, wedding dresses can be heavy and we don’t want anyone to drown.   I have really only had issues with three outfits, one was a dress made out of velvet.   My client didn’t tell me how heavy it was.    One was tie-dye shirts, they don’t work well with chlorine.    Last one was ballet shoes, they have carboard so they were ruined.    With the exception of the velvet dress, as long as you are ok with messing up the outfit, we can use them.

Time to get in the Water

Time to get in the water.  I try to talk to my client before we go underwater.    Mainly I try to calm everyone down.   I teach them how NOT to hold their breath.   How do you do that?  Hyperventilation is key.  Hyperventilation is irregular breathing that occurs when the rate or tidal volume of breathing eliminates more carbon dioxide than the body can produce.  Basically you breathe real fast and before you go down, you let out ALL of your air.    It really works.    You should try it.

Another issue I sometimes have is with dresses.  Once the client goes down with a dress on, the dress may flow up, so you have to push it down.    I tell everyone to wear a swimsuit under the dress.   That way if it does flow up, you will feel comfortable.

Lastly, have fun, if you don’t feel comfortable being underwater and it bothers you, cancel it on the spot.   It doesn’t happen often, but I will cancel it if things are not work.   Give it a chance though at least half an hour, usually half an hour is all it takes.   Sometimes longer.   You never know.