Under the Sea Photography!

My brother and I finally connected this weekend for my Dad's birthday and I finally got to view his pics from his trip in January to Jamaica.(This seems to be an issue with my friends and family since I started the course, finding the time to get together.) He was quite exited to show me his photo's taken while scuba diving in the ocean. We played around a little with the images in Lightroom to add a little more exposure, blacks, contrast and alike and the results where really cool. My brother is an amateur photographer and prepared for his underwater shoot. I thought it would be cool to interview him to see what he used and any advice he might have to those aspiring to do underwater photography someday. After seeing his shots I thought to myself could I do that?....

Above: Edited under water shot .

Below: The same image before editing.

Above:My brother went with his brother-in-law, Lawrence. 

Let's begin the interview:

Me: Tell us about the equipment you used and how you went about getting ready for your trip.

Ed: I used a Cannon PowerShot A570IS. The water case I purchased off of e-Bay in New York, for $210.00. It is a Cannon model # WP-DC12. I also needed to purchase a Cannon weight system model # WW-DC1- for around $12.00. These are weights that screw into the bottom of the case to give the camera a neutral buoyancy in the water. All my research and prep was done from the internet.

(an underwater case for my Cannon D40 looks like it would cost me about $329.00- need to be taking a lot of photos underwater for those "doubloons"!)
 Was there any photographic challenges underwater?

Ed: It was a little tricky, as you always had to watch which way the sun rays where filtering through the water. The other problem was the depth of the water. At 70 ft. you had to be extremely close to your subject so the flash could illuminate it.
Any "scary" moments?

Ed: No. It was actually very relaxing.

What was the neatest thing you got to photograph?

Ed: The best part was looking into crevices to see what I could find like the Lobster or Crab.

Anything you had to do after the shoot with the camera and equipment?

Ed: I was sure to rinse the camera case with fresh water. Dry it, and then open it up to remove the camera. It was important not to have direct, hot sun shining on it.

Will you be doing this again? Any more camera/equipment purchases in the near future?

Ed: Oh, Ya!!!! Every year if I can. Next year maybe I'll go someplace different. I was thinking of purchasing some other source of light to take on my dive. To enhance the colors in the images.

These photo's where taken from 30 ft- 70 ft of water and the water was a 110ft of visibility. 

Me: Is that good?

Ed: Yes- much better than here at home in our lakes.

What are you going to do with your images?

Ed: I'm planning on doing one large image 20x 24 and a few 8x10  mounted on foam and then put them into a "collage" style format. They'll hang in my basement.

What is your favorite image?

Ed: The one of the Lobster, I loved the bright colours, even under the water!

If you've tried  underwater photography  and have a piece of valuable advice, feel free to leave it in the comments section! Knowledge is a wonderful thing!