Photo kind etiquette

[Lorenzoid]

For the record, the opinions I expressed don’t really apply to places like NC and CA, where it’s a day boat, the boat is more like a taxi service, and divers don’t really expect they will get to know each other. For day boats in general, it depends on the group.

 

[The Chairman]

@Gene is the real deal and a good friend. He's even taken my picture!

@Ministryofgiraffes has it down when he says "Back is best". The slower you move, the more you'll see. That everyone is a quarter mile ahead of you means, you'll have it all to yourself. That said, I own a GoPro but am not an underwater sprinter. Quite often I get video of critters running from the other divers. Back is indeed best. Here's a sample of my "no chase" video:

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[Searcaigh]

Where I dive locally we don't have dive guides either.

On most of our boat dives off the UAE east coast, the number of divers with cameras is probably around 50% mostly with GoPros on sticks.

Of this variety 99% should have that stick inserted into an orifice.

Hassling marine life with GoPros pisses me off big time and I let it be known.

I normally dive with my buddy who is also a photographer and we find our own stuff. But frequently we have other divers on board that know we find cool stuff and that can be annoying. Sharing is fine, but interrupting a photographer while they're taking shots of a critter that they have found is a NO NO.

I'm not a photo hog, and happy to share, but some divers have no consideration for marine life and recently I've seen divers with massive lights blinding everyone and the critters pushing into other divers without waiting in the queue.

When I'm diving in SE Asia I / we usually have our own dive guide to help find critters as they generally know where to find stuff. Most of the time people from other small groups share the subjects and it's fine.

I did have an issue though with a videographer though in Lembeh a few years back when my daughter found two blue ring octopus mating, and while we were taking our shots this guy came barging in with a massive Gates housing and pushed us out of the way.

All I did was circle him finning madly and reduced the vis considerably, not something I would normally do but I was really pissed off.