Recently I went over to digital, it was expensive given that I always go with two of everything—the kit tends not to be as reliable around water. It’s not just from the water, frequently humidity causes big issues. The list is endless. I’ve been known to blow a few packs and I’ve had enough static on my G4s to power a small power station. Dribbles of water also get into the kit here and there. At the end of a shoot, my studio looks like a Chinese washhouse—drying dive kit, props, wardrobe, camera, towels, backgrounds…. I’ve been lucky with flooding though, in the last 10 years I think I’ve only killed one small video camera and a Mamiya body. I’m very pleased I’ve made the change to digital. It has revolutionized the way I shoot. No more coming to the surface to reload every 20 frames, and the optics are dazzling compared to what I used to get from a scanned transparency. Among the benefits of digital is the ability to review an image in the water to see if the lighting worked. In the days of film, a fair amount of uncertainty was part of any shoot, and that just won’t do when you’re shooting an ad.

back

next page