KONA, Hawaii (23 June 2004) -- Underwater photography can be a lot like sports photography -- long periods of waiting followed by bursts of action. If you hesitate, you risk missing that perfect shot. But this may be precisely the reason it's garnered such a following. "We get to see something that a lot of other people never get the opportunity to see," said John Hopcia, a longtime recreational underwater photographer who lives in Kona. If you're just starting out, you probably won't want to drop thousands of dollars into the hobby. Fortunately, you don't have to. Getting your feet wet - Start cheap with low-end gear Hopcia shoots almost exclusively with a disposable Kodak camera that costs him less than $10. He uses a waterproof camera housing that cost him $80 and a macro kit that cost him $50. For under $150, his set-up allows him to scuba dive to depths of up to 175 feet and take photographs of decent quality. Hopcia has been taking photos for more than 20 years recreationally. It is possible to take strong pictures without expensive equipment, he said, but it's not easy. "With a film camera you don't know what you got until you develop the film," he said. "You have read the camera manufacturer's instructions and be at the right distance and have the right lighting. "It takes a lot of experimentation and that can become expensive." Hopcia has won a Kona Underwater Photographic Society award for an underwater photograph he took using a disposable film camera. For those really hesitant to spend, there are underwater disposable cameras that come with its own waterproof casing. However, those cameras can only take pictures at depths of up to 15 feet and the images may be less than clear. Diving in - Time to upgrade Even Hopcia admits he doesn't get by solely on underwater disposable film cameras. He also has an Olympus D-3000 digital camera and corresponding underwater camera case. | | "With a digital camera you can see how the picture looks on the spot and if things need to be adjusted, you can do that and then get a better shot the next time," Hopcia said. Dee Wescott shoots with a compact Sony digital camera, waterproof housing and a small, adjustable strobe light. "I was looking for something compact," she said. "I didn't want something I would have a hard time traveling with." Westcott said she spent about $500 on her camera, $1,000 on the underwater camera case and $500 for a strobe light which produces more lighting than her camera's built-in flash. Fully submerged - A lifetime investment Rick Decker and Dick Lumdholm have each spent more than $5,000 on camera and equipment. They said the only real difference between their equipment and lower-to-medium-end equipment is quality and flexibility. "The smartest thing for anyone interested in doing this is to start off with a low-end system and then decide down the line whether you want to upgrade to a more expensive system," Decker said. But the underwater photography gear alone won't guarantee a spectacular photograph. Wescott said that during her first two years as an underwater photographer, all of her pictures were murky. She later learned that this happened because she was using the camera's built-in flash instead of investing in a quality strobe light. The built-in flash lit up the particles in the ocean water, not the subject she was trying to photograph, she said. She, Decker, Lundholm and Hopcia all agreed that practice and persistence are the only things that guarantee better photographs. SOURCE - West Hawaii Today |
