Caves in Mexico.

[Sharp]

Hello.

I´m going to Mexico Palya del Carmen after two month. I´m going to do all my dives in caves. I will take my stillcamera and videocamera under water. I have INON D-2000 stobe and also 24W Darkbuster HID with reflector in videohousing.

I have planned to dive in Playa and Merida.

Does anyone have good tips for shooting in caves?

[jhaaja]

Remember not to focus too much on taking pictures so that you can find your way out too :) I am partially kidding and partially not, a few deaths have occured because the diver was distracted by his own camera gear...

Have fun!

JH

[Jonathan Bird]

The white walls really bounce light back and can overexpose easily. You will get the best pictures if you have a remote strobe that you can use to backlight things or have a diver hold like a flashlight.

Jonathan

[Sharp]

Remember not to focus too much on taking pictures so that you can find your way out too :) I am partially kidding and partially not, a few deaths have occured because the diver was distracted by his own camera gear...

Have fun!

JH

Yes, line following is very important in strange caves indeed. I think that I will shoot a lot with my cameras.:)

The white walls really bounce light back and can overexpose easily. You will get the best pictures if you have a remote strobe that you can use to backlight things or have a diver hold like a flashlight.

Jonathan


The white walls will be new experience.:D I have dived in old limestone mine in Finland, where walls are also some places quite light, but not white.

Unfortunately I dont have remote strobe like jhaaja have. Well, if I´m lucky I will get for some dives on my trip cave diver/photoghrapher how have that kind of strobe.

[Clay Coleman]

I've found that viewing photos of similar locations is a good way to visualize what I want to do photographically. My favorite cave diving photographer is Wes Skiles (don't know him). Have a look at his home page at www.wesskiles.com and see if you get any ideas. You'll notice that he uses a lot of backlighting and slave strobes (as Jonathan suggested) to give his photos depth and clarity.-Clay