Back when I first became a “travel photographer” – in the sense that I travelled away from my native New Zealand for commercial photo shoots offshore – Fiji was one of the nations where I secured a lot of early work and travelled to regularly. In fact, for many years it was almost like a second home to me and I still love the relaxed environment, warm waters and Fijian hospitality I experience whenever working there. Especially when I make it to some of my favourite spots, like the tiny island of Wadigi in the Manamuca Island group, one of the very first resorts I photographed in my very early days as a commercial travel photographer.
This time, I was back to shoot the resort under new ownership, and looking for a new way to showcase the size and location of this tiny tropical paradise. A tiny palm-tree-clad “hill” amongst crystal clear waters, I wanted to highlight the small size of the island while featuring the clarity of the surrounding water. I had been experimenting with half under / half over images and this was my first real opportunity to use the technique on a commercial shoot.
Using a large conch shell beneath the surface as my foreground, I was able to time the softly moving waves and capture the island resort in the “topside” background. Taken back in 2011 this image was one of the first of many half under / half over images I would go on to create as I developed my skill with this technique.
Fast forward a few years to Bora Bora Lagoon, French Polynesia and another opportunity to shoot half under / half over images. Here the water is so incredibly clear you feel like you are floating on air as you travel across it by boat. This time, I wanted to combine the sea life beneath the surface with the recognisable Mount Otemanu above the surface – one of Bora Bora’s feature landmarks.
As I put on my snorkelling gear and entered the water I was amazed by the amount of life; there were tropical fish of all colours, remoras and rays alongside a lot of rather plump reef sharks. The water was only around two metres deep in this spot and the white sands below me were reflecting the light beautifully.
I spent half an hour or so shooting a range of images before my local guide decided it would be a great idea to add some drama by throwing a few fish heads into the water in front of me to bring the sharks in even closer…! This made for a sudden frenzy of feeding fish with the sharks bumping into me as they competed for the spoils. An added bonus were the seabirds diving down to claim their share of the feed. Something we hadn’t predicted but which made this image even more successful.
Back in Fiji, I had the opportunity to add people into my half under / half over images, with a shoot at the remote “backpacker” style holiday hideaway called Manta Ray Island in the Yasawa Island group of Fiji. Having become firm friends with the owner/operator Ryan Irvine, we always take the time to sit down the night before the shoot starts to share a few beers and come up with some crazy ideas of what to photograph and how to do it differently. We were quick to make plans and decided a great way to highlight the stunning clarity of the water at this location – alongside their newest activity on offer which was stand up paddle boarding – was to shoot an image that combined a top side paddle boarder with a snorkeler below the surface.
The next morning dawned windy and very cloudy and I was convinced we wouldn’t be able to shoot anything in the water that day. But while consoling myself over breakfast, the skies began to clear and before I could even order coffee it was turning into a stunningly beautiful day with palm trees swaying in the gentle breeze against a vibrant blue sky backdrop, complete with sparkling turquoise water and shimmering white sand. This was Fiji, where the seasons can change in a single day and you have to be ready for anything!
I had spent a fair amount of time in the water here at Manta Ray on previous visits, from capturing the Manta Rays after which the property is named through to groups of holiday makers kayaking, and swimming in the idyllic waters surrounding the gorgeous beach areas. We had been out deep sea fishing and scuba diving, snorkelling and rubber tubing… But the half under / half over images we captured that day were truly different.
Shooting half under / half over is a little more challenging than it may sound! I use my Nikon D4 with a Nikkor 14mm lens in an Aquatech underwater housing. On the housing, I have a 25mm extension and an Aquatech 8-inch dome port (another of those strange situations in photography where some measurements are imperial and some metric).
There are some unique challenges with using a dome port – the large dome does make it possible to shoot the split images but when it is submerged the dome throws a “projection” of the scene which can make focusing on your subject matter both under and over the water surface very difficult.
My normal procedure for underwater shooting with this setup is to manually focus the lens at its hyper focal distance before entering the water. I duct tape the focus ring to prevent any chance of movement. The big challenge is to have both below and above water subjects in focus. I therefore choose a higher ISO than normal and combine it with a smaller aperture (larger f number) to give me a greater depth of field.
Once I was ready and had everything set up, I asked my paddle boarding model Emma to paddle towards me and I let her get fairly close before signalling my second model Ana to swim underwater through my frame. We did this a number of times to ensure I had the distances right, and to allow both girls to perfect their timing.
This same technique allowed me to capture a series of half under / half over images on subsequent trips to French Polynesia, where I would combine a stand-up paddle boarder with black tipped reef sharks below, underwater sealife with swaying palm trees above, and a unique angle of a traditional outrigger canoe…
For all the challenges of shooting half under / half over images, the rewards have been worth it, and adding a refreshing dip and some snorkelling time onto my shoot schedule is not a bad result either. Another challenging but fun day at the office!
