WHAT IS IT ABOUT UNDERWATER
PHOTOGRAPHY THAT MAKES
IT SPECIAL?
Every time you jump into the water, you don’t
know what you’re going to see, and that makes
every single dive really exciting. With land
photography, you’ll likely set out with an idea
of what you want to capture and the kit you’ll
need, and 9 times out of 10 you’ll get it. When
you dive, you don’t have that guarantee. You
have to try and prepare for every situation and
take each dive as it comes. But there is just
something so special about being underwater
and seeing what so few people get to see. Being
able to capture those things in pictures and
share them with others – there is no other
feeling like it.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES?
We don’t have the luxury of tripods like land
photographers do, so when capturing macro
shots that require a steady hand, you’re o en just
using one nger to stabilise yourself on a bit of
rock, and that’s it. We also don’t have long down
there the average time is an hour per dive. If
the weather and visibility are good, we might be
able to get down four times in a day, but
conditions can change quickly so it’s never a
given. Plus there’s the di culty of light. We work
with the Sun as much as possible, but as you get
deeper you need strobes to lighten up your
subject. It’s like taking a mini photo studio down
with you!HOW HAS YOUR KIT BAG CHANGED
OVER THE YEARS?
My very rst underwater camera was a really
cheap one I bought in duty free on my way
to Australia in the late 1990s. It could take 36
pictures at a time on lm, and you would go
through rolls and rolls of lm just to get a few
shots you liked. Now, I shoot on a Canon 7D
Mark II and generally use one of three lenses a
Tokina 10 17mm sheye lens for wide angle,
and either a Canon 60mm or a Sigma 105mm
for macro shots. On top of that, you need the
waterproof housing mine is from Nauticam
and strobes for lighting. It’s not cheap. A top
end system can cost the best part of £10,000, but
even a decent entry level setup is going to cost
you upwards of £2,000.SO HOW CAN PEOPLE GET STARTED?
It depends how seriously you want to take it. An
action cam is a good place to start, and you can
get pretty decent shots for hundreds of pounds,
rather than thousands. en, if you get the bug,
you can start building a compact camera setup
from there I always recommend people buy
second hand to start with as you’ll always nd
someone upgrading their kit and selling their
old setup at a decent discount.DO YOU NEED TO BE HANDY WITH
PHOTOSHOP?
Absolutely. Like with all photography, youcan get it right in camera but it’s less likely,
and much more di cult when you’re in the
water. Even on the best day for visibility, it
can still look like there’s a snowstorm in your
shot. Being able to remove all that sediment
or what we call backscatter in an edit is
essential to getting the most from your shot,
as is being able to replace some of the colours
you’ve lost with lack of light.WHERE IS BEST FOR UNDERWATER
PHOTOGRAPHY?
You don’t have to travel. Seals and blue
sharks are among my favourite things to
photograph, and you can nd them both in
waters around the UK. Just ve hours away,
Egypt is a diver’s playground and further
a eld, the reefs of Indonesia are breathtaking.
But for all the beauty we have, I am also
really aware of what we are losing. I feel I
have a duty as an underwater photographer
to share as many pictures as possible, of
the good and the bad, so people know how
amazing it is down there, but also see what
we are doing to it, too.IF YOU GET A CHANCE TO GO
ON HOLIDAY THIS SUMMER,
YOU MIGHT BE TEMPTED TO
TRY SOME UNDERWATER
PHOTOGRAPHY. AN ACTION
CAM AND A SENSE OF
ADVENTURE IS ALL YOU
NEED, SAYS SAEED RASHEED,
EDITORIAL CONSULTANT FOR
DIVER MAGAZINE
“We don’t have
tripods - you’re often
just using one finger
to stabilise yourself
on a bit of rock”
UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY
Troubleshoot
SAEED RASHID(@sa e e d rashi d)
Saeed is a member of British Society of
Underwater Photographers and is editorial
consultant forDivermagazine. He holds
workshops and talks on underwater
photography via his company, Focus Visuals.RADAR