I  have been shooting underwater for almost a decade and one of the challenges that I have tried to resolve is finding a one size fits all type solution to making sure my underwater camera rig was at or near neutral buoyancy.  You might think why worry about that issue;  for me the response was simple:  after a week or more of shooting it meant that a rig that was not buoyancy neutral made my arms and shoulders sore.  Towards the end of a week of shooting it seemed to me that I was not taking as many shots and missing some shots that I ordinarily would have taken.  What I have also observed is that buoyancy or lack thereof was in part dependent upon what mode of shooting I was doing.  And, it made a big difference depending upon whether I was shooting wide angle or macro. Wide angle I wanted to be as close to neutral as possible. If I was shooting macro, I could get by with being a little negative, but being positively buoyant was a real pain.

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For instance, I started out shooting mostly wide angle.   In 2010 I bought a used ikelite system off eBay which came with the standard steel handles and the ikelite arms which were also steel.   I started shooting a wide angle port with a 20mm lens on a Nikon D200 camera.  When I attached the Ds125 strobe and the Ds51 strobe, which came with my purchase, the rig was more than 3 pounds negative. 

That might not sound like a lot but after a week of shooting it was a beast to drag around.   I changed lens and went to an 8 inch dome and the rig got closer to being neutrally buoyant.

But that was until I added the focus light.  The focus light was supposed to be close to neutrally buoyant, but in reality it was negative.  The attachment hardware only compounded the problem.  But the focus light meant that if I wanted to instantly capture a scene without waiting for the lens to hunt and find focus I had no problem doing so.  Before I added the focus light there were several trips where I felt I missed interesting shots because the camera would not focus quickly enough.   It was time to go back to the drawing board again. 

My next move was to add carbon fiber arms to the rig to replace the steel arms when they became available.  That was a good move and got my rig for wide angle to less than a pound negative which made things much better.  I used 4 Nauticam carbon fiber arms, two on each side and that got me to a good place until I added a video light and upgraded to an ikelite housing for the D800.  My solution was to alternate, shoot still with the focus light on one dive and then on other dives remove the focus light and replace it with the video light and shoot video.  It was not ideal, but I made it work. 

Then I got interested in shooting macro.  I had one flat port which would work with either a 105mm lens or a 60mm lens.  I liked the 60 mm lens because my old eyes adapted to shooting with it much easier. 

The problem was that with the float arms and the 60mm lens and the flat port now made my rig very positive.  I tried taking off two float arms off but that made the rig negative.   I tried taking  off just one float arm and while the rig was close to neutral it was not well balanced.  When I changed to the 105mm lens it displaced enough air in the port so the rig was pretty close to neutral with all the float arms in place, and a focus light mounted to the rig, but not the video light.  So I shot macro with the 105mm more than with the 60mm, but even then only spent about 10% of my time shooting macro.  Wide angle remained my primary focus.  

By the time the next camera cycle came around, 2018, I had decided to change to a new housing.  I replaced the Ikelite housing and went with a Nauticam housing for a D850.  By the time I ordered the housing, two of my trusty Nauticam float arms had sprung a leak— they were over 6 years old so I figured long off of warranty.   So I added two aluminum arms and some floats with the thought that I could add or subtract floats to balance the rig and keep it neutral.  I went with the Inon 330 strobes.  

I bought a 4 inch dome to house the 16mm lens and I bought a macro flat port to use with either the 60mm or the 105mm lens.  I also added a subsee 10 wet diopter.  And then I added a carbon fiber snoot.  What I found was the rig was a little negative with the wide angle set up.   I was slightly positive with the macro set up unless I added the diopter which made it negative, but not by much.  

After some trial and error I realized that the floats on the aluminum arms was not quite as good a solution as I had hoped.  I also decided that I wanted to try shooting some splits which would require a bigger dome.  I went with a 9 inch glass dome by Zen with an extension for a 16mm to 35mm lens.  It was when I was playing with the zen dome in the pool that I began to realize just how much lift the dome and extension piece added to the rig.  Now I had yet another problem:  I could be about a pound negative if I shot the 16mm lens and about 2 pounds positive if I shot the 16mm-35mm lens in the nine inch dome.  

And then I happened across a description of float arms by Kracken that were adjustable.   I contacted several distributors about purchasing a pair, but they were not easy to find.  Finally I contacted Mike Bartick who I met in the Philippines a few months before and thankfully Mike came through with a pair just in time for my trip to Tonga and Fiji.   Before leaving for my trip, I had to try out the arms in the pool.  

The valve, which is the shinny silver part on the right of the float above, is used to allow water to be added to the float arm. The value is unidirectional so you should give some thought to how you mount the float arms to your rig.  I mounted them closet to my housing.  I found that sometimes it was helpful to have the inflow valve mounted away from the housing so it was easier to add water to the arm.  I suspect that regardless of how you mount the arms to your rig there will be a certain amount of personal preference that should guide how you set up your rig.  I did not find any differences in adding fresh water at the pool or salt water to the float arms in Tonga or Fiji that made any difference.   

Shooting the 9 inch dome with no strobes and the Kracken float arms, just add a little water to the float arms and the rig is neutral.  Cool, shoot whale shots and split shots no problem with the Kracken float arms.   Add the strobes and the focus light, no problem, don’t add as much water to the float arms and shoot away.   Want to switch to the 16mm and shoot sharks in Bega or soft corals on the Rainbow reef, no problem, just add a little bit of water to each float and shoot away.  And now the other nice discovery, want to shoot either the 60 mm or the 105mm behind the flat port with or without the diopter, not a problem.  Use the Kracken adjustable arms to adjust to the rig.  

One of the things I do appreciate about the Kracken float arms that does not directly relate to shooting is that when you are done with the trip, you can easily empty the water from the arms and dry them out so they don’t weigh much when they are packed away for the next flight.  With as much camera gear and dive gear as I carry, I am always trying to lighten the load even if it is only by a few ounces here and there.

So at least for now I think I have found a solution to the problem of trying to balance the rig and getting it to neutral buoyancy so I can go back and forth between wide angle, macro and super macro. 

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Yep, it is a long way to go to Tonga from Dallas Texas. About 3.5 hours to LA, then 10 hours overnight to Fiji. And, then another 2 hours from Nadi in Fiji to Vanavu Tonga. When spread over a couple of days it was not too bad. Two checked bags, and I carried on the plane a roller board and a backpack. I did manage to get the dive equipment and camera gear to Tonga. And, thanks to the nice folks at Fiji airways it all arrived on time and without any breakage. Hurray.

When we got off the plane in Tonga it was pretty warm, mid 80’s and sunny. You could tell, Tonga gets a lot of rain, all of the plants were very green and lush. The airport in Neiafu Tonga is pretty small. Two people to check passports. Luggage pickup was efficient, the baggage handlers just passed it through a portal in the wall. Even with a plane full of people, and we were the last to get off the plane, it only took about 1/2 and hour. With a 15 minute ride we were at the house where 6 of us stayed. We unpacked and then went to dinner in town. There are about 3 restaurants in town. An Italian restaurant, a Spanish bar, and a pizza restaurant. Over the week we ate at all three and we favored the Italian restaurant.

After dinner I put the camera and underwater housing together. I put the 16-35mm lens on and added the zen 9 inch glass dome. Ugh, was it ever heavy. We didn’t have to check the weather, it was windy and overcast.

We got to the boat the next morning. The boat was a single engine aluminum hull dive boat. Thankfully it had good cover. By about 7:30 a.m. we were on the water and heading out to the far end of the bay. The seas were pretty rough, we had 6-10 foot waves and there were a lot of waves. Half the passengers were chumming the fish, and sometimes on multiple occasions even after taking Dramamine. I told one the passengers we should rename the boat. the vomit comet; my comment got a chuckle from the non- chummers, but otherwise was too close in time.

Trying to find whales in rough seas was a challenge. We found a few and did a couple of drops to swim with the whales, but got relatively few shots. Anybody who thinks that humpback whales swim slowly is mistaken. Michael Phelps in fins on his best day might be able to do a short maximum effort of 3 miles per hour. Whales can do 5 mph or more depending on what they are doing. So for us old geezers with fins on our best hope is that the captain drops us in front of where the whales are going to swim by and the whales then swim by, and if we work hard we can get left behind by the whales in about 10-20 seconds.

I learned a couple of lessons the first day. My favorite fins which work great for scuba diving are not the best when trying to just snorkel with whales. Paddle type fins, particularly paddles with little flexibility spend a lot of time in the air particularly when there are big waves. When they are in the air they don’t do you much good. So I wound up swimming on my side most of the time. Talk about a great way to swallow half the ocean. That snorkel often became a big straw. When I come back, next time, I will bring the old split fins that are really flexible and will stay in the water all of the time. That way the snorkel will not fill with water as often in big seas.

The second lesson I learned was that in rough water where you are having to do a lot of swimming, pushing a 9 inch glass dome is a challenge and was probably a bad idea. Now don’t get me wrong, having the ability to zoom in to 35 mm from 16mm is helpful; and using a rectilinear lens is a lot of fun underwater. But, pushing the weight and the girth of the dome through the water was quite the resistance workout. After two days of rough seas and pushing the dome, I decided to change the port to a 4 inch port and just use my trusty 16mm lens.

On the boat ride out to the whale grounds on the third day, with my 4 inch port attached, I told one of our group that what I wanted was an old slow whale who was more interested in napping than chasing about here and there. Well I kind of got my wish.

We did a couple of jumps with a few single whales and then we had lunch. During lunch the captain told us that we were going to try to swim with a mom and baby whale but we were the fifth boat in line. The captain told us he was trying to talk a couple of the other captains in to letting us go ahead of them because we had less available time on the water. They agreed so we jumped up to boat two. So we alternated with another boat, they had four in the water then we had a group in the water. Some people say that having a long time with whales is magical. I don’t really subscribe to that theory. I did find it was a lot easier to shoot images of the mother and baby whale then the momma whale was napping. There were a couple of times when I seemed to drift in closer to the whales than our guide wanted. He would pull on my fin and I would back up a bit. And of course, I was wishing I had left the 16-35mm lens and the nine inch dome on because there was not much pushing of the dome through the water.

All told we had about 45 minutes in the water with the mom and baby whale. Compared to the prior days and the succeeding two days, it was a great day.

Would I go back, probably, but I would probably go back earlier in the season to see some heat runs and maybe have some calmer seas.

Less than one percent of the world’s population holds a diver’s certification card or “c” card.  That “c” card potentially unlocks the possibility of seeing and photography wild life on the seventy percent of the planet that is covered in water.  With the great possibilities that a “c” card provides comes great responsibilities, particularly for underwater photographers.  

Our collegues who make images of wildlife on land for the most part can count the number of animals that they come across on any given day without much difficulty, unless perhaps they are creating images of a great migration such as you might find in parts of Africa.  In contrast, when we venture into the ocean, underwater photographers will quickly lose count of the animals that they will see.  Corals are animals.  Sponges are animals.   Tunicates are animals.  And, that does not even include the fish, mollusks and cephalopods to name but a few of what most people would consider as the animals that live in our oceans.   So are there rules that underwater photographers should follow to avoid over-stressing the animals that live under water?  I think so. 

Rule number 1:  Try not to touch anything but water.

Some of the creatures that live in the ocean are really small.  It would be very easy to put a fin down on a creature without even seeing them.  Consider the plight of many nudibranchs  (a mollusck without a shell or sea slug). One that comes to mind in particular is commonly referred to as Picachu.  It is not uncommon for a Picachu to live on the sand and his coloring is designed to make it hard to see him crawling along in the sand.  So if you lay down on the sand to take a picture of some other creature, and you fail to see a Picachu, squish and no more Picachu. 

On the other hand, the rational for this rule is also grounded in the safety of the underwater photographer.  Consider this: a blue ringed octopus may be less than 20 centimeters in length, but has some of the most powerful neurotoxin — tetrodotoxin in the world.  The average life expectancy after a bite by a blue ringed octopus is about 8 minutes, and if you survive to reach the surface and are transported to a hospital, you may spend about two weeks on a respirator, assuming you survive.  Even the skin of the blue ringed octopus has tetrodotoxin, which if you touch it might not kill you, but could make you very sick.

    Rule number 2: Try not to overstress animals with too many flash shots

Some animals are relatively tolerant of strobes firing near them.  Some are not.  Nevertheless, watch for any signs of distress in the animal and stop shooting if the animal is adversely reacting.   If the animal starts to move away from you, let it go.  Don’t chase after it.  You might get a very bad surprise.   Many animals underwater have stings and bites that can harm the photographer.  If they start to move away let them go.  For example I got two shots of a scorpion fish before he moved.  Scorpion fish also carry a risk of venom in their dorsal fins, so again – don’t touch them.

Rule number 3: Mind your gear

Many animals that live underwater grow extremely slowly.  A single misplaced fin kick may kill or severely harm some creatures that live underwater. Take for instance, a vase sponge.  Vase sponges  can be incredibly beautiful, yet if a diver or underwater photographer is not paying attention and either mis-kicks or drags   a camera across the sponge it can be killed or severely harmed. 

Hopefully by following these rules, underwater photographers can avoid injuring the creatures of the sea and themselves. 

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