Photo etiquette

[Darnold9999]

my rules (at the moment)

If I found it I am going to take as long as I want to get the shot I want, then I will point it out to whoever I am diving with. Unless you are a destructive diver in which case I exercise judgement.

If you found it, I will wait until you are done, pop in take a quick shot or two if others are behind me waiting and I am next in line. If I really want a great shot, will wait behind and hope it is not too silted up.

I dive in the tropics in a shortie, no gloves, keeps you really aware of where your body is in relationship to the reef. Fire coral is a great teacher.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Fire coral is a great teacher.

Ain't that the truth?

 

[jghflash]

In Roatan last March we were diving on the same boat with a father/daughter for several days. I was shooting on every dive and had pointed out a lot of interesting things to the Dad. I tried to stay away from the daughter because, even though she had just "earned" her AOW, she was totally out of control on bouyancy. Anyway, the Dad showed up with a camera one day and started hanging back with me to find some good subjects. On the first couple I showed him, he almost knocked me out of the way to get his shot. He held onto the reef, dropped his fins down on anything below him (reef or divers) and generally made a mess of things. I quickly headed away from him and his daughter and ended my helping him find subjects. On one dive, one of the guides found a very small Harlequin Pipefish and was kind enough to point it out and even carefully hold his knifepoint beside the fish to give my picture a scale. I hovered over it and took a couple of shots. When I motioned toward the Dad to see if he wanted to show it to him also......he shook his head "no". Back on the boat he told me he had suggested to the Dad that perhaps he wasn't ready to dive AND take pictures yet! Poetic justice!

 

[vkalia]

I generally find this to be a non-issue for me - I find any kind of group activities and photography to be mutually exclusive. I move slowly enough when I dive as is, but sea slugs tend to overtake me when I am shooting.

Vandit

 

[Jamdiver]

Fire coral is a great teacher.

Oh yeah it is, I once tried to take pics upside down like a certain underwater photographer here.. (cough cough... Dennis ) and got a faceful of Fire Coral for my efforts....

Now if that isn't a lesson to crawl before you walk, I don't know what is

 

[AUTiger]

One trip, all my dive friends were comparing me to a trumpetfish because I would often take photos while hanging upsidedown with my arms extended ahead of me like a trumpetfish. I hadn't eaten fire coral yet, but there's still time.

David

 

[montychandler]

While I agree with most of the early etiquette comments in this thread they aren't neccessarily specific to the issue of photographers - as was pointed out.

As a photographer I generally don't dive with large groups. Not because I don't like people but because when taking photo's I'm not on tour and would lose a group being led around by a DM within the first 10 minutes. I and the people I dive with generally try to limit the group to a max of 6 divers and if at all possible the 3 or 4 of us.. Hard to do in some of the tourist destinations I know, but chartering a smaller boat can usually be done without too much of a cost hit. So I guess in a way I'm aware that I don't fit in well with a large group wanting to tootle around and look at things and then move to the next thing.

There are a lot of people that take their pocket cameras down and take pictures but they generally stay up with the reef tourists.. I generally don't cover much ground and I tend to hover around a place for extended periods because most subjects are very shy or will come closer if you let them come to you rather than chasing after them..

So in summary I think the issue is the general diver curiosity and wanting to see things - and if they take a picture so be it - their skills are what they are and their sensitivity to the environment is within themselves. The photographer is generally going to dive very differently and would usually be a little more "aware" of his/her skills, positioning and enviroment..

My point of view...

Cheers,