Observations from first underwater shoot!
So!
Doris got some underwater camera gear a bit ago, she's rented the gear before and done a few shoots, you can see them here.
For the preggers one I did do some minimal assisting, so I *thought* I was reasonably familiar with the whole underwater thing.
Lemme tell you it is WAY different being in front of the camera.
Behind the camera, you're pretty much focused on one thing: getting the shot. Not that it isn't hard, you have to keep yourself down in the water and there are other water things to struggle with.
So this "shoot" was a "let's play with your equipment!" test.
We wanted to test how an umbrella maneuvers in the water, and how a night time shoot would look.
First we started in the afternoon, I drove past the pool on my way home from work (left early whoooo) and it was empty, but by the time we started (around 4 I'd say) kids were coming after school and parents were getting off work, etc. So it got rather crowded and we weren't able to play much. Also with so many people we thought we shouldn't do anything too... weird? And should abide by rules. So I started out wearing heels and with my hair down, but had to tie the hair back, and wasn't sure about shoes in the pool so took them off.
That photo is me trying to work out the best way to "sink" for a photo.
You can see a bit of my hair poking out, I'd forgotten a wig cap, but more on that later.
The water in the afternoon is a bit... murkier than when we'd previously gone in the morning. We're not sure if this is a quality of light/position of the sun thing, or to do with the chlorine since we went in the middle of December for those pregger pics.
Since it got too crowded we went back to my parent's (this is a pool they're a member of) place and ate yummy homemade bread and drank tea.
From the first round lessons learned:
- Wigs need to be really secured, the drag is really strong with any sort of forward movement.
- If wearing a dress it's easier to sort of dive and then turn in the water than it is to press the dress back down from your armpits.
- Only way to really sink is to release all your air and then not panic!
- My expression was the *last* thing I was thinking about really, there's so many things to think about! Air bubbles in the nose, hair in the face, outfit in the aforementioned armpits, low enough in the water, wait pose what pose? And so on.
- Laughing underwater ruins the shot.
So then we went back at 8pm:
This cute dress Doris made!
When we went back I asked my sister to put my hair in two french braids to secure the wig to.
Only two of the lights in the pool worked, my suspicion is since the "season" ends next weekend they're not bothering to change the lights.
This was a real learning experience with figuring out how close I need to be to the light, and how close Doris needs to be to the light, and how close to me.
I think this is my favourite!
I finally mastered the sinking to the bottom (when standing anyway) and was actually standing on the bottom here (8ft depth).
But also this series of shots was really scary, because at night the depth perception is REALLY skewed. It's already skewed being underwater, add the night, and the light, it's really hard to tell. And it felt like I was much closer to the surface than I was, so after staying at the bottom as long as I could with no air it felt like forever to get back up and every time was like "OMG SURFACE." Especially if I didn't get all the way down to have a good contact with the bottom to propel myself up.
This shot was me trying to get to a "hovering" position, sinking but not too far. Harder than it sounds!
Umbrella!
I was trying to flop upside down. It didn't work.
Trying to sit in the umbrella.
Again, expression is like the last thing on my mind!
You can see here my wig is lifting again.
Next time I'll try three french braids, one down the center. The middle is where the pull is the strongest for sure. It's very distracting!
In conclusion:
- I'd say it took me a good half hour to get used to sinking (even then, it's hard) so that needs to be factored into time management.
- Wig secure-ment is really important!
I'm sure there's more, but actually that's all I can think of at the moment, as a subject anyway.
The rest of her photos from the test are here.
Doris got some underwater camera gear a bit ago, she's rented the gear before and done a few shoots, you can see them here.
For the preggers one I did do some minimal assisting, so I *thought* I was reasonably familiar with the whole underwater thing.
Lemme tell you it is WAY different being in front of the camera.
Behind the camera, you're pretty much focused on one thing: getting the shot. Not that it isn't hard, you have to keep yourself down in the water and there are other water things to struggle with.
So this "shoot" was a "let's play with your equipment!" test.
We wanted to test how an umbrella maneuvers in the water, and how a night time shoot would look.
First we started in the afternoon, I drove past the pool on my way home from work (left early whoooo) and it was empty, but by the time we started (around 4 I'd say) kids were coming after school and parents were getting off work, etc. So it got rather crowded and we weren't able to play much. Also with so many people we thought we shouldn't do anything too... weird? And should abide by rules. So I started out wearing heels and with my hair down, but had to tie the hair back, and wasn't sure about shoes in the pool so took them off.
That photo is me trying to work out the best way to "sink" for a photo.
You can see a bit of my hair poking out, I'd forgotten a wig cap, but more on that later.
The water in the afternoon is a bit... murkier than when we'd previously gone in the morning. We're not sure if this is a quality of light/position of the sun thing, or to do with the chlorine since we went in the middle of December for those pregger pics.
Since it got too crowded we went back to my parent's (this is a pool they're a member of) place and ate yummy homemade bread and drank tea.
From the first round lessons learned:
- Wigs need to be really secured, the drag is really strong with any sort of forward movement.
- If wearing a dress it's easier to sort of dive and then turn in the water than it is to press the dress back down from your armpits.
- Only way to really sink is to release all your air and then not panic!
- My expression was the *last* thing I was thinking about really, there's so many things to think about! Air bubbles in the nose, hair in the face, outfit in the aforementioned armpits, low enough in the water, wait pose what pose? And so on.
- Laughing underwater ruins the shot.
So then we went back at 8pm:
This cute dress Doris made!
When we went back I asked my sister to put my hair in two french braids to secure the wig to.
Only two of the lights in the pool worked, my suspicion is since the "season" ends next weekend they're not bothering to change the lights.
This was a real learning experience with figuring out how close I need to be to the light, and how close Doris needs to be to the light, and how close to me.
I think this is my favourite!
I finally mastered the sinking to the bottom (when standing anyway) and was actually standing on the bottom here (8ft depth).
But also this series of shots was really scary, because at night the depth perception is REALLY skewed. It's already skewed being underwater, add the night, and the light, it's really hard to tell. And it felt like I was much closer to the surface than I was, so after staying at the bottom as long as I could with no air it felt like forever to get back up and every time was like "OMG SURFACE." Especially if I didn't get all the way down to have a good contact with the bottom to propel myself up.
This shot was me trying to get to a "hovering" position, sinking but not too far. Harder than it sounds!
Umbrella!
I was trying to flop upside down. It didn't work.
Trying to sit in the umbrella.
Again, expression is like the last thing on my mind!
You can see here my wig is lifting again.
Next time I'll try three french braids, one down the center. The middle is where the pull is the strongest for sure. It's very distracting!
In conclusion:
- I'd say it took me a good half hour to get used to sinking (even then, it's hard) so that needs to be factored into time management.
- Wig secure-ment is really important!
I'm sure there's more, but actually that's all I can think of at the moment, as a subject anyway.
The rest of her photos from the test are here.