National Speleological Society Cave Diving Section

If there is any truth to the saying You learn from your mistakes, then I must have a Masters’ degree. While vacationing in Bonaire I did my first underwater photography dive with a borrowed Nikonos V. I forgot to connect the synch cord from the strobe to the camera. Obviously, this resulted in a total flood of the camera and I incurred the expense of having it repaired. Since the cost of the repair was more than the price of a new Nikonos, I suppose you could make the argument that a Nikonos V was my first underwater camera.

On this same dive trip, I had also taken my Nikon Coolpix. This is a fine camera and I was using it to shoot surface images. I had borrowed the Nikonos because I was too cheap to buy a housing for the Coolpix. Well, after flooding the Nikonos, I ended up buying a Fantasea acrylic housing for the Coolpix anyway. I just had to pay full price in a foreign country. I had started my own foreign economic stimulus plan way back then.

I continued using the Coolpix for underwater images in the lakes near our home in Montana and even attempted to use it in caves. I tried to light my images with my partner’s video lights and actually got some pretty decent shots…. or so I thought. I’m now using a Nikon D200 with a Tokina 10-17 mm fisheye lens in a Hugyfot housing. The strobes I use are Ikelite DS125s with ultralight arms. I like having my model use an Ikelite DS160 strobe with an Ikelite controller. My wife/dive buddy/model Bonnie also has a Silent Submerge Death Ray that she will let me use at times.

Many times, other divers desiring to shoot images underwater will ask what camera or lens I use or would recommend. I have found that proper lighting and stellar buoyancy control are more important than which digital camera to use. All digital SLR cameras will give excellent results if you take the time to learn how to properly control the many available settings that they all feature. In underwater cave photography, I have found that light is king. I have come to believe the best dollar spent when shooting images in a submerged cave environment is on good strobes.

Bonnie Stelzenmuller has been my dive partner and photography model from the beginning. I have found that a good partner/model is required to achieve good photo results. In cave photography, you can’t do it all by yourself. Bonnie acts as a safety diver, lighting technician, and model and she often suggests scenes or locations for a shoot. Usually, we will dive a cave several times before we actually do a shoot. Sometimes this is not practical, but I have found that our percentage of good images to total shots taken is much better if we spend the time to explore a cave and plan the shoot.

In sharp contrast to underwater cave photography, I also enjoy wildlife photography. Rarely is a wildlife shoot technically planned and seldom is additional lighting needed and it’s usually a solitary shoot . I rarely photograph people because my camera evidently makes them look fat.

My image of Bonnie swimming through the Peanut Tunnel in Peacock Springs State Park won second place in the 2008 Dive Rite photo contest and was featured in their year-long ad campaign in Advanced Diver magazine for the Nomad sidemount harness. Other images I’ve taken have also appeared in the 2009 first quarter issue of the NACD Journal and on the cover of the 2009 second quarter NACD Journal.

Bonnie and I spend the summer months in Montana. When we’re not working, we enjoy diving the clear mountain lakes and rivers and hiking in the mountains and on nearby Wildhorse Island. We spend December through March in cave country diving and shooting images and video in the caves.

You can view more of my images at megahurts.smugmug.com. If you see us at Cave Adventurers, Dive Outpost or Amigo’s around the campfire, say hey.