Starting out

Personally I took up the challenge during the 1997 season for several reasons. Firstly I had returned from an expedition I had led to search for a lost British Battleship. The wreck was found in 115m and while the project was the first of its kind to explore European wrecks deeper than 100m I was feeling empty with only surface images. Shortly after I was chosen as a member of a team set to explore Titanic's sister ship the 'Britannic' the largest sunken liner on the planet lying at 120m depth south of Athens in the Aegean sea. The final reason was simply that I had begun to work on a dive guide to the deep wrecks of the English Channel and needed images of the wrecks to accompany my forthcoming volume.

The hardest part of the entire journey was now to begin, where to start! One of my close friends Jamie Powell had also taken the idea up with me and between us we had managed to lay our hands on a set up that we could share on alternative days on the Britannic. Needless to say we thought we were the top guys with our Cannon T70 & Sigma 24mm lens housed in what is now an antique Subal housing. Trouble we were faced with was the Britannic lay at twice the depth the housing was rated to. We took the risk owing to the fact that it wasn't ours and its owner no longer dived. Looking back its kind of ironic to think that my first underwater photographic dive was in fact inside the bridge of the Britannic at a depth of around 110ml Fair be it we had no technical knowledge of the subject and were more than happy to leave a manual camera in a pre-set mode. Sticking with an average of what we had read in books of F5.6 & 60th of a second the results were more than acceptable in fact so much so that our images were published in magazines and newspapers around the world.

Next step

After the project I now began to look at the options that would suit my needs to image deep wrecks back home as well as a visit to the Lusitania in southern Ireland. I called upon several notable photographers whom could advise me technically although new nothing nor anyone whom could advise on the approach to depth logistics. I needed a depth rating of at least 100m if not more and the option to ride fully manual as I new an automatic system would prove troublesome in dark waters often blessed with back scatter. From numerous calls and contacts I had made none would provide more help and advise than Alan James at Bristol. Alan presented a range of options advantages and disadvantages the result plainly clear the Aquatica gave me the depth rating and the pro-90 with a Nikon F90x would give me my total all-round manual option I was after. Lens choice was never an issue as the conditions I would be working in called for close up work so a 16mm 1:2.80 Nikkor fisheye was the right move although Alan was sure the 20mm would give me suf ficient results! Being lucky enough to live near Ken Sullivan meant that expert work and modifications could be carried out without having to send the system away for periods of time.

Looking for a flashgun wasn't so simple although something with enough power was a must as most deep wrecks rest in total darkness. Of course the darkness gives me the option to obtain results with slave units effectively, although at such great depths that means acquiring some assistance, which is easier said that done! Time is THE limiting factor for me on a deep dive and even with a set of twins 20's on my back 20-25 mins bottom time is a push, 28 mins on the Britannic gave us almost 5 hours of decompression. Taking this into consideration a quick recycle time is of the essence.

Depth rating on all flashguns I have experimented with have never been an issue as most have doubled their ratings with no effect although coverage over the fisheye has never been sufficient even with a single big gun. Understandably I will never cover an entire wreck image in UK waters at depth although the opportunity to image larger sections of wreckage will sometimes arise. Dropping a stop with a diffuser compensates to some extent however, often the spotlight effect is still there in the final results. Of all the big flashguns I have now settled with a Sea & Sea YS-350 used in TTL mode in conduction with a 120 set on TTL slave mode.

Exposure with irregular light levels has been experimental although Fujichrome Sensia 11400 ASA slide format always provides me acceptable results. Even pushed foe time I still manage to squeeze 36 exposures out albeit with snap judgements although on an extreme UK deep dive I would consider 24 only.

Having established all of this the most challenging aspect is to bribe a fellow diver to be your model, having a diver in your art of composition in wreck photography is a key factor a potential publisher will look for. With a single mixed gas dive costing up to £100 each and such little precious bottom time finding a willing model is something I'll be working on for some time to come!

[Leigh Bishop has been exploring deep shipwrecks for over a decade and has published his results with numerous articles in various diving magazines around the world. He is a member of the deep wreck diving team 'Starfish Enterprise' He can be contacted at leigh@deepimage.co.uk]