QUESTION: What is the one thing you know now that you wished you had known when you were starting out?
ANSWER: You can get motion-sick by looking through a lens photographing up close! Either take breaks between sessions or take Dramamine.
Photographing the world up close is like looking into outer space. It takes a naive and fresh way of seeing the world under your nose.
QUESTION: What's the best way to get started in nature photography?
ANSWER: Get comfortable with a telephoto lens. Learn about the habits of the animals you want to photograph and learn patience.
Underwater photography used to be limited to those with very large budgets and tons of equipment. For those of you who have always wanted to dip your photographic toes into that realm, it has now become a bit more accessible. Several camera manufacturers – Canon, Pentax, Olympus – are making affordable housings for many of the smaller digital cameras. While serious underwater photography still requires higher-end equipment, these cameras and housings can produce some very good results.
Some examples:
Canon is making an entire line of underwater housings for many of its digital point-and-shoot cameras in the PowerShot line. You can find housings for under $200 for the Digital ELPH, for instance. They work well but do need some maintenance. Usually they have a rubber O-ring that needs to be kept free of dust and sand. You also need to spread a very thin layer of silicon grease on the ring to help it seal. (consumer.usa.canon.com)
Olympus also has housings that fit its Stylus line of digital cameras as well as the higher-end C8080 wide zoom. Some of these housings claim they can be used at depths of almost 200 feet but I have not tested them under that kind of pressure. (www.olympusamerica.com)
Pentax has come up with an underwater digital camera, the Optio WPi, that doesn't require a housing. I have seen some good results and it is much more compact. (www.pentaximaging.com)
Nettle reflection
This photo of a purple-striped nettle was shot from my kayak while paddling off the coast of Mexico. I simply held my Canon Digital ELPH just under the surface and took several photos as the jellyfish passed close to my boat. I liked the reflections on the surface of the water and felt they added something to the photo.
I have used my ELPH with the housing on countless kayak trips and snorkeling. Often I carry much more expensive cameras but don't want to risk them getting wet so they stay protected. My ELPH is always attached to my person and ready to capture photos that would otherwise never be taken. Sometimes the best camera is the one you have with you all the time.
Often you can get better results by getting close to the subject, and if you stay close to the surface, you may not need to use flash. Digital cameras can also afford more shooting time underwater with a larger 1-gig compact flash card.
While you may not land yourself on the cover of National Geographic, you can take great photos of your kids swimming, snorkeling or just experiment with life under the surface.
In Visual Cues, Union-Tribune photographers hope to inspire you to take more photographs of nature and enter them into the Quest Nature & Eye contest. The columns will run weekly through March and, as they appear, can be viewed at
www.natureandeye.com.
Questions about Nature & Eye: (619) 299-3131, ext. 1745, or nature-eye@uniontrib.com
