Buddies and Photography

[Diver Dennis]

Hence my decision to go mostly solo because that is the environment I spend most of my time diving in.

 

[Uncle Pug]

I remember getting *stuck* with a photographer as a buddy of circumstance years ago. It was a charter trip and my regular buddy was sitting out the last dive.

I wasn't a photographer above or below water and certainly wasn't use to the idea of going slow and looking closely at stuff. I was more into distance covered.

At any rate, it really bugged me that this guy basically ignored my need for speed and just puttered around a small area with his nose stuffed into his camera.

I remember thinking that he was the world's worse dive buddy. That wasn't the case of course. We were just mismatched in agenda and style. Now that I'm an U/W picture snapper I'd like to go back to that spot and see some of the cool stuff I undoubtedly missed.

 

[Cacia]

It's not a big deal. OEX2 brings up DIR a little too often in unrelated threads. People get defensive just like you all seem to when we say we really don't always want the buddy yoke. It is more fun than if we all agreed 100%, don't you thinK?

 

[dlndavid]

Good point WWD. That illustrates the fact that most certified divers don't dive much, they are mostly in the category that you described, doing maybe 5 or 10 dives a year. A lot of them will be paired up with some stranger on the boat and if that person is not taking pictures it could make their dive not very entertaining. If they both take pictures then I think the Buddy mentality might go out the window.
Then there is the whole other argument of whether their skills are good enough to keep them off the reef when they are taking pictures...

Like those reef thrashers in PG, ruining the vis, ruining my shot I waited patiently for a Gobie and Shrimp, picking the reef off themselves on the boat, but let's leave that for another thread.

 

[RonFrank]

It's not a big deal. OEX2 brings up DIR a little too often in unrelated threads. People get defensive just like you all seem to when we say we really don't always want the buddy yoke. It is more fun than if we all agreed 100%, don't you thinK?

I have to say that I disagree with this post 100%!

BTW Catherine, you sure look sunburned in your avatar!

 

[Diver Dennis]

Like those reef thrashers in PG, ruining the vis, ruining my shot I waited patiently for a Gobie and Shrimp, picking the reef off themselves on the boat, but let's leave that for another thread.

Exactly David. But they did have nice gear though...

 

[tangfish]

I agree with the notion that if you're a photographer, you should buddy with another photographer (or videographer). I can understand a non-photographer's frustration at waiting for me to get that perfect shot of the warbonnet, or some other fidgety fish. But, I think that even on dives without a camera, I have adopted a slow-paced relaxed speed of moving. I think you scare away a lot of the marine life if you move about quickly and erratically. I like to drift along slowly and at a paced speed, so all the little critters come out to see what the bubble-machine is all about

 

[Cacia]

Ron, you are a DIR candidate. I know 'em when I see 'em.

To the point: I want to be with other divers, I just want limits to what I am responsible for. Too many rules these days for me. liniex posted some rules...useful I guess but just like laws, there can be too many. Diving has become like the US tax code, and I am not buying in. I would rather work it out on a personal more intimate basis than have to follow a set of rules or guidelines set by...somebody else...somewhere else. There is a real rub between certain regional styles of diving in my opinion. Also, many of these "buddy/photography" do's and don't just aren't workable traveling to certain types of places. (unless you are bringing your buddy) I would rather excede my competence and learn something from the local divers in a certain place. You are more likely to be okay with a wee bit of "trust me" if you are a solo diver comfortable with being in charge of your own safety. For the typical photographer, this is a useful conversation we are having because it allows them to put different ways of making decisions in context which is what we often lose becoming too inbred in our thinking.

Just curious, anyone know the word that describes ...an institution's "inbredness" where they just keep recirculating the same grad students into their post grad programs, and become irrelevant and out of touch after awhile?...not enough fresh thinking...there is a very precise word that escapes me.

Ron..there...better? no red.

 

[dlndavid]

zombies joke joke joke

Status quo maybe?

 

[limeyx]

OK... I'm kidding about DIR... sorta... actually I'm only kidding about kidding. So much of what a diver learns in even the fundamentals class works wonders for being a photosnapper and an excellent buddy at the same time: Situational Awareness/Buddy Skills & Buoyancy Control/Non-silting Fin Kicks, ect...

...

Limeyx, most often with my regular dive buddies, we all have small cameras. Some are even waterproof.

Agreed, multiple cams can work. We had a bad experience with
1) new dive buddy and two cameras
2) existing dive buddy 2 cameras and current

so for now we are more careful.