First Underwater Photographs

Posted by Bruce Iliff Nov 4, 2008

My Suite101 article “Scuba Diving With A Camera” reminds me of the first dive I had with my first underwater camera. It was a Nikonos V underwater camera; a film camera that has since been semi-retired.

I went on a dive trip to Lady Elliot Island, a small coral cay on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and fortunately I was holidaying with an attractive young lady who was prepared to pose for my fledgling attempts at underwater artistry.

So we snorkelled over the reef and I fired off a roll of film on shots of my model against the coral backdrop.

We didn’t think any more of this until we developed the films from the trip. In the background of one shot was the distinctive tail of a reef shark! It had obviously come for a closer look but we were too busy trying to get that elusive perfect shot to care about what was happening around us!

From this moment on I’ve always remembered that there is more underwater that the diver can see and take in.

And those artistic shots? Well, only one didn’t end up in the rubbish bin – the one with the shark tail!