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It’s been
said that every photo taken of you shortens your life with one day. I’m not sure
that this is entirely true since people like Brittney Speers are still around.
However, Anna Nicole Smith might be of a different opinion. I am sure though,
that this is true for the coral reefs in tourist dense areas. Recreational
divers have become the new “Japanese”…
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How many bad pics of parrotfish like this
does the world need?
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The last few
years the prices for under water housings for cameras has dropped like a dumped
weight belt at the same time as digital cameras has become everyone’s toy. I’m
not sure if this is a blessing or a curse. All of the sudden the majority of
divers coming to dive the Red Sea carry a digital camera with an under water
housing. Some small pocket cameras some big semi-pro cameras and most of them
first time users that bought their photo equipment just before leaving for this
holiday. Now, I don’t say that there is anything wrong with the desire to
document a holiday, nor feeling the need to get a new approach to diving by
picking up U/W photography. However, divers bringing photo equipment are likely
to be the main reason we see so many broken corals when we dive.
It seems like
the moment you put a camera in the hands of a diver is the moment he forgets the
half metre extension of his feet, everything he ever learned regarding buoyancy
control and the ability to listen to good advice. Dive centres rent out camera
equipment to the left and to the right with no other advice than how to take
care of the camera. Not a word about taking care of the reef. Divers of course
have the same desire, and right, to document their holidays as the next bird
watcher. Every one wants to show friends and family pictures from their trip to
Egypt when they get back home. Especially if you have done something as exciting
as scuba diving! On land this is hardly ever a problem. You take a photo of the
pyramids or the sphinx, no harm done. Under water the situation is different.
You have delicate marine life that might have taken centuries to grow that can
be destroyed in a jiffy by the smack of a fin or a thump of a knee. I have seen
it so many times; the side of the reef getting both figuratively and literally
scraped clean by divers with cameras that I’m actually surprised that we still
have any soft corals left on reefs like Brother Islands or Elphinstone.
But it’s not
only the reefs that are in danger. I’ve seen divers with cameras follow sharks
out in the blue, way too deep or up to fast to get the “digital evidence” they
need, risking to get swept away by the current, get bent or agitate the shark to
a point on the brink of a leave-me-alone-nibble. Add some nitrogen narcosis to
this equation and you have a potentially dangerous situation.
Some sea
creatures get stressed easier than others, the carefree turtle for example, and
the laidback dugong. They seem easily choreographed and willing to pose for the
photographer but the reality is that they easily get stressed and might suffer
mental and physical injuries if approached in the wrong way. This doesn’t
necessarily mean that the diver is stupid or a bad diver, just that he is
distracted or preoccupied with his camera.
When buying
an under water camera equipment it’s easy to think “it’s a harmless camera that
can hurt no one” and we have all heard the expression “leave nothing but
bubbles, take nothing but pictures” as a way to describe environmental
awareness. It might be time to change the second half of that expression. The
truth is that a camera is not as harmless as one might think. It can make you,
unwillingly, take unnecessary risks and make you damage the very marine life you
love, what made you take up diving in the first place.
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How many bad pictures of goatfish like this
does the world need?
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There are
diving photographers and there are picture snapping divers. The photographers
know how to compose a picture and how to get a good result. Also they are
cautious and alert, not to add to the bad reputation under water photographers
already have. The picture snapping divers have no idea how to create a good
photo and they return home with hundreds of crap pictures of fish swimming away
taken from above. In pursuit of these earthly useless pictures they often tear
down the reefs like bulldozers.
A lot of
divers are now also upgrading to their “second generation” of camera equipment.
This means that many people who finally got used to diving with a compact camera
in a small housing have to start all over again. This time it’s a NIKON D70 in
an IKELITE housing and two big strobes. All of the sudden they have to think
about shutter speed and aperture. And… oups… the subject left already… The
strobe-arms are sticking out… And oups… scraping soft corals off the overhang.
The water resistance increases and the air-consumption skyrockets… And… oups… no
air for safety stop…
 How many
bad pics of butterflyfish
like this does the world need? |
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I’ve also
noted that the enjoyment factor of the dive often fades as soon as the diver
brings a camera. Often they get out of the water saying they weren’t pleased
about the dive and that there was nothing to see. Simultaneously other divers go
into raptures over how fantastic an experience it was. Most of the time, the
reason is that you miss a lot of what’s going on around you, if you spend the
entire dive looking through a view finder.
When I used
to teach U/W Photo courses I always started with the sentence “Today we’ll learn
how to avoid taking the crap ones” and I think this is one of the most vital
piece advice dive guides and instructors can give to guests who come to dive
with camera equipment. Don’t take the crap photos! If you concentrate on getting
only the nice shots and plan your photo dives, you would probably spare the
reefs immensely. And you would actually learn how to get nice shots rather than
just keep the “not so bad ones” out of a few hundred bad. Instead of picking on
the divers after the dive for the mistakes they did during the dive, try to come
up with hints and tips before the dive. Here I would like to quote my friend
Kimmo Hagman, one of the old-school-photographers who lives by the rule; “If you
can’t get the photo hovering, don’t try to take it.”
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How many bad pictures of rays
like this does the world need? |
At the end of
the day I think the task lands in the lap of the dive guides and dive centres to
advise and teach divers with cameras to remember to respect the marine life. To
create rules and enforce them. Take our responsibility when renting out under
water cameras and include environmental aspects in the pre dive camera briefing.
And why not offer a course in underwater photography combined with peak
performance buoyancy?
In the Red
Sea we ask our guests not to use gloves to avoid damaging the corals but can we
really ask them not to bring their brand spanking new camera equipment? Of
course we can, and I think it’s our duty to do so if we see that the diver can’t
dive sensibly. Or we might loose the beauty of the reefs and the very source and
motivation of the dive industry.
Anders Samaka
Jälmsjö
Dive
Instructor – Philosopher – Dirty Old Man.
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