underwater video

Who says you have to own a powerboat to go scuba diving?  Recently, Ann thought it might be fun to bring in an inflatable kayak for the staff to play with.  Well, it arrived and it looks like fun.  It fits in a small bag but inflates to a very reasonably sized craft.  Ashton and David inflated it as soon as it arrived and Ashton is already planning a diving trip using it.
On one trip to Pohnpei, I toured Nan Modal with a Kayak, paddling through the canals of this very ancient city.  It was a beautiful day and a spectacular way to see these ruins and to get a real feel of how it one was when this city was alive and active.
One thing I realized while paddling along is the importance of having a camera to capture the moment.  However, I also realized that a large camera was not very desirable because of the space requirements and the balance issues.
On my recent trip to Indonesia, I was once again assigned underwater video.  This is only the second time in 20 years of working with Ann at Oceanic Ventures and the first time was in Thailand over ten years ago. The advantage of this second time was that the camera was a video camera the size of my iPhone that was housed in a small plastic housing from Ikelite.  Now don’t be misled, I am not a videographer by any stretch of the imagination but it was fun trying to get a little video of the people and creatures we encountered. 
I am a still photographer at heart so much of my video looks like still shoots.  I am sure that someone with a video outlook could achieve better results.  It was fun taking video underwater but even more memorable taking video on the surface.  Imagine mother and daughter dancing to hip hop tunes while heading out to the dive site or incredible beauty zooming by captured as it appeared.
A small video camera is always handy and you are more likely to carry it with you.  At times, it was just clipped off to my harness and at other times I was trying to capture a frog fish or two.  I am sure with some additional time with the camera and perhaps a light, my video images would improve.  I never really played with the on-camera adjustments, I just shot it when I had a free moment (yes, it was a working trip).

 The video results were better than I thought they would be, especially with an inexperienced operator.  I think that with some practice and a little tweaking with the camera settings, I can improve my results and generate a more professional looking film.  But in the meantime, I’ll just keep shooting a few short clips to help me remember things.  I guess I’ll have to return to Nan Modal so I can try it from a kayak or maybe I’ll just borrow the one from the store and head out!