DIR and Photography

[Rainer]

I am a very part-time photographer (because I suck at it and lack the patience) and dive regularly with GUE instructors that are shooting photos. As covered below, photographers are less aware of their buddies no matter how good they are in the water. However, since photography in the DIR world is a team event the other teammates just take a more active role in team communication and awareness. More pre-dive planning is involved. In a two man team (not optimal for photography) one means of keeping the team in better communication is to use the other buddy as the model. (It allows the photographer to focus on the subject and his buddy.) A third member (which can "rotate" duties with the other non-photo teammate) to help keep the team together is the best solution. Otherwise, it takes a buddy that is willing to sacrifice a fair amount of their dive actively communicating with the photographer. I have found other photographers tend to better understand the need to do this (but only if they themselves don't have a camera on that dive.)

All of this still requires the photographer to have the discipline to react immediately if he is not receiving the active communication form the other teammate. All new photographers and most more experienced photographers are fairly deficient in this area as it is very easy to become competely focused on the photos.

A three man team does seem to address (to a reasonable degree) the concern about buddy awareness. Does this mean those of you who shoot photos tend to avoid two man teams? Also, would you ever dive a two man team with both members shooting photos? This would seem to pose serious issues wrt buddy awareness, yet I often see (I assume non-DIR) buddy pairs with both members shooting. That said, having a three man team supporting a single diver just so he can snap a few photos on an easy 30ft reef seems a bit overkill. More curious about what is done in practice, than what would be recommended (where the three man team does seem ideal). Again, I am NOT shooting photos myself, so just interested in what is being done by DIR divers.

 

[DIR-Atlanta]

Does this mean those of you who shoot photos tend to avoid two man teams?

When diving in a two-person team and doing photography, I prefer to do as RTodd suggests (i.e. one diver shoots the photos, other diver serves as the model). I prefer to shoot pictures of people anyway, so that's not usually an issue for me. I would never dive in a two-person team with both people shooting, due to the issues that you mentioned about buddy awareness - better to swap roles on alternate dives (i.e. first diver photographs second diver on first dive, vice versa on the second dive). I would also never do a two-person team for macro work.

That said, having a three man team supporting a single diver just so he can snap a few photos on an easy 30ft reef seems a bit overkill. More curious about what is done in practice, than what would be recommended (where the three man team does seem ideal).

Just a point of clarification - it's a three person team where one of the three divers is the photographer (i.e. remaining two divers serve as the model or in a support role). For task-loaded photo dives (multiple cameras, strobes, etc), that is actually the best way to go. One of the non-photographers is given the responsibility of keeping an eye on the photographer at all times - typically this is the person who is helping manage the equipment. The "model" diver should be given responsibility for managing the dive (depth, time, deco, etc), and watching the equipment "sherpa". That way everybody is accounted for - photographer watches model, model watches sherpa, sherpa watches photographer.

FYI, there were two presentations on this very topic at the most recent GUE conference, and many of these issues were discussed in detail.

 

[lamont]

I'm not a good enough of a photographer to obsess over the "perfect shot" which probably helps. Generally I find something cool and start clicking away at it hoping something works. In between individual shots I always glance over to check my buddy. Often I can line up a shot and watch a HID spot in the corner of my eye as well -- it helps if you've got a buddy with good light control that can put a spot off of your subject but still visible.

The key is to be able to cycle your awareness rather than getting task focused entirely on taking pictures of the cool nudibranch. So you go from nudibranch, to buddy and back again, with the occasionally time, depth and gas check thrown in. Occasionally after you're done with your subject you should give your buddy a good once over as well to look for equipment issues or stress...

Equipment, Environment, Team...