Since the time I started underwater photography I have been fascinated by seeing the reflection of objects underwater on the surface.
This blog post is to tell the story of how I came to take these images and also to introduce my new PLATINUM Collection of Monochrome flower images.
Whenever I am in shallow water I look for subjects that create cool reflections that ripple and morph into fantastical shapes when frozen still on camera. Leaves, sticks, water plants, and even fish have all been captured in this way. I had been trying to figure out a way to do a project highlighting this effect of lighting and reflections.
I remember seeing in the past a picture of a hibiscus flower floating in clear blue tropical water and thinking it would be cool to do a series of underwater flower images.
Once I started shooting a few images of some cala lilies and roses in the local public pool I realized this would be a great way to combine two ideas. The combination of the colourful and shapely flowers with the reflections was perfect. I have not yet been able to find out if there is a technical word for the reflection seen underneath the waters surface. I might just have to coin a word for it if there isn’t one.
My love of striking colours and bold contrasts, underwater image making and art have come together in this project.
I began working on this series several years ago but only launched it a few months ago when I had a big enough collection of images. It was a project I worked on in secret for the most part, except for the curious swimmers and guests at the various pools I used. They often looked on in mixtures of fascination and confusion when I would show up at a hotel pool with arm loads of flowers and dump them on the edge ready for a shoot.
Typically my style of photography is naturalistic in nature.
I do not manipulate the environment or subject in any way to get the shot I want. The same goes for my processing of images. Besides colour corrections and tonal adjustments normally I don’t do much in the way of creative editing. This project however was a bit of a departure from my norm. Firstly the flowers were cut flowers, mostly from local florists, which I then staged in a pool using a tripod for stability. My lighting was very specific and intense to control the type of exposure I wanted for each image. For the black backgrounds I blasted the flowers with lots of strobe lighting to purposely underexpose the background. For the white background images the opposite was true. I shot in full sun and lit the background while shading the flowers, using only enough strobe lighting to get good contrast.
Underwater Tripod to hold flowers steady just below the surface and another stand holding a strobe light.
When I wanted an image with a light background I used an umbrella to cast shade on the flowers which helped over expose the background.
I used a sheet to help lighten the background and hide the pattern in the pool edge.
Likewise the post processing of these images was a lot more involved than my usual methods. Each image took a lot of time to get just how I wanted it. The basic flower and the colours are pretty much as shot but the amount of work to get the overall style and background was quite intensive. The swirling reflection patterns in a lot of the images however are exactly as recorded. I did not alter any of these with fancy Photoshop manipulations. That is, after all, the fascination I had with this project. The ripples came from people swimming in the pool or swishing the water with my hand. At times when I was in the pool by myself I would sometimes stand dead still to get the shots with perfectly mirrored reflections.
Like most of my photography I just shoot what I am passionate about at the time and don’t get worried about whether people will like it or not.
I have had a lot of fun with this project and who knows where it will go. As an artist the joy I get in the creation is as much, or more important than what I get from the work once it is complete.
Big thanks to Thrifty Foods in Campbell River and 5th Street Florist in Courtenay for providing me with so many amazing flowers to work with. Also to the Comfort Inn and Suites in Campbell River and Bruce and Ann for the use of their pools.
