Are UW-Photogs solo divers?

[hyaku]

I usualy have guide. To be honest he lives where I stay and dives every day and knows where to find the stuff. It's South East Asia and these people get paid in a month less than my wife spends on shopping for one evening.

Sometimes I buddy up with another photographer. We both keep a slow pace anyway. Shot here shots there. I find stuff I show him and likewise.

The few time we sometimes get a distance between us in a drift I am desperately trying to get him back to find something really nice I have found and let him share.

One friend knows whats required and really works with me holding me so that I get stabalize to get a good macro shot.

I'm not much into marathon diving anyway. Sometimes groups arrive and retards come up with totally empty tanks and guages off the scale. Or as I wander around they shoot pass me a like a school of frightened fish and end up in the boat a good 30 mins before me.

Best of all is the "One off diver" They probably even work at another dive shop on another island. but its one dive and "Damn theres nothing here man" and they are off!

The reason I get lots of shots is perhaps because I "Go back". Blue ring and a whale shark within eight months can't be too bad?

But fast or slow I think divings about sharing.

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

Not to speak bad about the 'buddy system' but if I dont' feel comfortable being in an area by myself then I have no business there with a buddy. In the end even if we have a 'buddy' we are still solo. Self sufficency is the key goal because if you rely on your buddy and that buddy failed to come thru for you then your screwed and your life is on the line.

We often dive in the same vicinity of each other and often give each other spread room so I suppose that would be listed as 'solo diving'. I think some ppl refer to it as a very loose nit buddy system.

Ed

 

[Eli]

I am glad to see people "admitting" to breaking the rules and diving solo. I too have considered it, but have yet to do it. Of the people here who dive solo, how long have you been doing this? If you dont answer Ill assume you disappeared in a solo diving accident.

 

[divemed06]

It's all about risk assessment. I personaly would never dive solo. First of all, my diving is mostly done in cold, poor vis, little wildlife environments... my buddy IS my photo subject...IMO, no matter how well you prepare for a solo dive, there always exists the possibility, that, for some reason, you'll pass out and drown underwater. Of course the chance of this happening are probably as good as the chance of finding a Stingray in Lake Superior. If this was to happen, the chances of survival on a solo dive are 0. With a buddy, he or she can at least get you to the surface. We all need to assess the risks and make an educated decison depending on the conditions, our equipment and our experience. Dive safe everyone; keep those pictures comming!

 

[lanun]

i'm not a 'hard core' wait for 20 minutes for the perfect shot kinda photographer. but i have on occasion spent mabe five minutes for the yellow box-fish to orient itself properly for my shot.

when i do shoot, it's either prearranged with a buddy who is him/herself a shooter or more of the shoot on the fly variety.

i have on a couple occasion opted not to shoot though i have my camera with me when i felt it would compromise the buddy system e.g. higher current, murkier water, too many interesting things that might cause either one of us to be distracted (e.g. new site, etc).

 

[Shanghai Manta]

Photographers are solo divers by nature - must be. To find your subject, position yourself, take the shot (at least twice to be sure you got it) etc. means your buddy has probably got bored of waiting for you and go on already. In any case you cetainly can't perform your legal duties as a buddy if you have partnered up.

When I am photographing the wildlife then I'm solo. Like a previous poster - I'll note the direction of the group, having forewarned the DM of my intentions and refused a buddy (unless he/she is also a photographer and we both understand the nature of the dive) and noted the compass setting, this way it rarely takes long to catch up.
Exception is when my wife / daughter are diving with me - in which case I'm focused on their safety and on photographing / videoing them !

 

[alaity47]

My husband's the photographer, and I really enjoy diving with him. I'm perfectly happy to chill at one spot for a while; actually prefer it to zooming by the sights like we used to do before he got the camera! Plus, I get to help out - spotting cool fish, getting inside the shot for perspective, etc. Makes it extra fun to be down there.

As for being a more distracted buddy...It definitely helps that we're married and have plenty of time to discuss dives before and after - he's not just some guy I hooked up with on a boat. We've added a lot of underwater signals to our repertoire, so I can usually tell the difference between him diving down an extra 10 feet quickly to get a shot, and drifting downwards because he's too distracted to be keeping an eye on his computer...

And even with his "distraction", he's a better buddy than others I've dived with.

Neither of us is interested in solo diving... safety concerns aside, it's just so much more fun to have someone you can share the experience with!

Anyway, that's been my experience. Seems quite different from everyone else's by the replies here!

 

[Diver Lori]

My buddy and I are new to U/W photography, but not new to diving. We've done very well so far using each other for shots, herding schools, etc. We keep an eye on each other and usually do our hobby in the same vicinity at each other. Like Pipedope stated....we've also taken turns being the photographer and the subject.

I think it just boils down to the fact that we dived well together before photography and continued with the addition of photography. And like Alaity47 said.....my buddy and I are significant to each other so we have time before and after to discuss our objectives and how we plan to make it work.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

While buddy diving is taught and recomended highly it can also offer a false sense of security. Even with a buddy you need to be prepared and trained to the point where you can take care of yourself.

Think back to your open water instructor. Was he buddy diving? He was obviously trained and prepared to take care of himself if needed.

This year while diving on Maui I was cruising a reef when a member of a buddy team (didn't know where his buddy was) swam up from behind me and tore my regulator right out of my mouth. He had ignored his pressure guage and didn't even think about swiming up 25 or 30 feet to the surface, instead he swam that far over to me.

All too often those buddy teams don't work out.

When either my wife or I decide to shoot some photos we are diving solo mostly. We might both be down there but usually we're about 50 feet apart.

 

[CuriousMe]

Truthfully, whether I have my camera with me or not doesn't make a huge difference in my diving speed. Conditions permitting (ie not a drift dive, etc) I'm a pokey diver. Even without the camera I tend to like to hang over a coral hear for a while and watch the action.

Thankfully, most of the folks I dive with on any kind of regular basis are also pretty pokey.

When I'm doing a led dive with a boat buddy, one of the things we chat about before getting in the water is dive rate....I'm upfront about my slowness. I've never had anyone have a problem with it or lost a buddy because of it

Peace,
Cathie