Equipment used for photo

Johnny Christensen

Hi Gareth

I currently use the Nikon D200 and most of the time the 10,5mm fisheye lens.
When you are going to a SLR, then spend the majority of money on camera, lens and highquality domeport. Don't bother to get the biggest and most powerful strobe that's out there. The only place where you will get to fire that at full blast, is when you are in the tropics with massive amounts of ambient light. Relatively cheap ones will do just fine.
For the past 6 years I have used two Sea & Sea YS60 strobes, as they have plenty of power for greenwater photography where the ambient light level is low.
Digital SLR has made it so much easier to get the results you want. One little downside though, unless you are going in the semi-pro or professional range of cameras, the digital SLR's tend to have very small viewfinders.
So make sure that the uw-housing you get for your camera, has some kind of enlargement optics in the viewfinder. It's no fun spending your time underwater guessing what you are seeing, rather than knowing it for sure.

Good luck, underwater photography is what has kept my interest in diving alive. Without that, I would have hung up the fins a long time ago.

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www.johnnychristensen.com
Wreckphotography from the cold north

Mixaddict

Johnny,

You're photography is simply amazing! I am curious about one of the techniques that you seem to use quite often in your pics. It appears that in several of your shots, a diver is holding a light behind the subject you are shooting. The ambient light from the light or torch comes from behind to create an interesting effect. Are you shooting these types of shots with ambient lighting only, or are you using a strobe as well?

Great work. I am very impressed.

Regards,
Randy

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Randy Thornton (MixAddict)
Inspiration, Evolution,Hammerhead & Sentinel
CCR Instructor

Johnny Christensen

Hi Randy

Yes, I'm using the backlit technique a lot. Primarily to avoid the subject burning out from overexposure. Ambient lightlevels are usually very low, so I tend to go with slow shutterspeeds. Even a 30w halogen divelight creates a hotspot that ruins the picture at long exposures. So most of the time I have the model aming behind the subject and are exposing the foreground by strobelight. It's easier for me to predict the lightoutput that way.

I have used a lot of different techniques to get the pictures over the years. Slow shutterspeeds using tripods to stabilize, though primarily with colourfilm.
The B/W pictures are shot with handheld camera, using high iso film. The digital can't match that, so I'll be keeping my old camera and housing for such applications.
One of the things that I will be attempting on some of the larger wrecks, is to either stage several slave strobes or have a few divers work as a team in doing the lighting. Kinda like a DIR team effort.

I like how you can extend the light coverage, without overexposing the subject in the foreground.
There is some nice pictures that Radek Husak shot with that technique here. Cave Diving Centre Lot - Cave diving in France

If it can work in a very clear cave, it should work in "less than perfect" ocean conditions. I will need multible lightsources on a lower setting though, to avoid lighting too much of the silt in the water.

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www.johnnychristensen.com
Wreckphotography from the cold north

pchanning

Hi Johnny, you have some stunning photos there mate - images that most of us may see in dreams at best. I think some of your images in particular convey a real sense of feeling, not to mention drama. Good work.

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Cheers
Paul

The key to enlightenment... is survival.

Johnny Christensen

Thank you all for the kind words.
The pictures remind me of a lot of great thrills underwater. Hopefully they will also inspire someone else to go search for that scenic dive or intact wreck.

Cheers
Johnny

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www.johnnychristensen.com
Wreckphotography from the cold north