H2O – Looking for “Water People”
During an underwater shoot for a jewelry collection a couple of weeks ago, I shot this quick between-the-scenes picture of Filip while he was filming the shoot. This is not a composite by the way, this images hasn’t been in Photoshop at all.
I’m pretty happy with the picture considering it was just the inspiration for the moment, we spent only 2 minutes shooting it and we didn’t change anything to the lighting, which was designed for the underwater shooting. But I can’t help but thinking it could be even better if I had spent some more time and thinking on this photo.
Water is a challenging environment for photography but it opens up a whole new range of options too. I’ve been playing around with the idea for a while and this shot, made me take the plunge: why don’t I shoot a number of personal portraits of people that have some kind of connection with water?
There’s no better way to get in touch with interesting water characters, than to ask your help. Are you, or do you know anyone that has a special connection with water (dive instructor, sailor, captain, storm chaser, sewer pipe cleaner, …)? Please get in touch with me. If you know a sexy mermaid, I won’t refuse to shoot her but I’m not necessary looking for young, perfectly shaped people. I’m looking for character and an interesting story. This project is still in the “crazy idea” stage, so for now, don’t worry about geographic limitations or other practical restrictions. Hit me in the comments!
Hi Bert,
As a surfer I consider myself a waterman. I also know a lot of the top Dutch surfers and a few water photographers. I also know some dancers who might be in for something crazy waterstuff.
Let me know
Cheers Alex
Hi Bert,
I grew up spending all my holidays and practically every weekend in summer on our boat.
My father still has that boat (who’s named after me btw) but I’m not sure that this will get you some good footage since he hasn’t been taken care of for quite a while, so it’s rather a sad sight.
Anyway, good luck with the project, looking forward to it!
S.
water people: voor mij was Noël Ongenae, coach therapeutisch zeilproject en projectverantwoordelijke van kind van de zee (tama.moana@gmail.com )een typische water mens. Typisch kapiteinsgezicht. Hij doet aan psychotherapie op zeilschepen (of zijn het zielschepen): een speciale soort oude tweerompsvaartuig uit nieuw zeeland. [Via B Waes, twitter BOWA]
This is not an easy job to take some good pictures under water, specially when your not taking under the water.. I think you did a good shot! Pretty interesting and I would love to try this one..
I love taking long baths … does that count?
thx all, I’ll check everything out when I have some more time (even the long bath thing
)
Used to swim up to 100km per week and played waterpolo for 5 years. I downsized the swimming a bit, and usually finish my weeks with just over 10km nowadays.
Hey,
I have a high school senior client that is a competitive swimmer and model. She wants some underwater fashion shots. Are you lighting these from above the water or in the water? How do you sync the camera to the strobes?
Any help would be appreciated! You should post some shots of the sets!
Steve
[...] while ago, I blogged about my new personal project about water. Thanks to your input, I got plenty of interesting potential subjects. But before I [...]
Great shot! I confess I don’t do a lot of water shots, but I really need to after seeing a shot like that! Kudos and thanks for sharing.