Underwater portrait photography with Brisa Hennessy

Earlier this year, I attended a photography workshop for the first time (you can read all about that here). One of the best things about it was getting to try new things, such as flash photography, night surfing photography, and underwater portraits.

I always thought that I didn’t really like taking photos of people. But I’ve discovered that what I don’t enjoy are taking generic family or couples shots. But when the portrait has something unique about it, like water, it actually becomes really interesting.

The very first portrait I took underwater was set up by Ted Grambeau. He decided on the location, the time of day, the lighting, and had organised a model. That model was Eli, the son of pro surfer Ricardo Christie. Eli was naturally very comfortable in the water, and that really helped to take some amazing portraits, as he could open his eyes and look directly into the camera. All of the workshop participants took turns taking a few shots with Eli after watching how Ted chose to photograph him. I asked him to look directly into the camera and try to look as relaxed as possible, and got this shot.

A small flashlight was used to add some highlights to Eli’s face, as we were shooting backlit.

I LOVE this photo. It’s not technically correct - I’ve accidentally focused on his hair rather than his eyes, but this was my first time shooting a portrait underwater! When we got round to showing the rest of the group our favourite images, someone asked me why I chose to crop the image in this way. The truth is, I didn’t crop the image at all. The reason he is partly out of frame is because it’s really tricky to keep your camera underwater as well as yourself to look through the viewfinder without weights. I have several images where he’s fully in frame, but I love the composition of this one (albeit an accident).

After this amazing session (which was probably one of my favourite classes from the whole workshop), I decided I wanted to try with a female model. I knew that pro surfer Brisa Hennessy was staying nearby in preparation for the upcoming WSL competition at Keramas, so I contacted her to see if she was interested in a shoot. Fortunately for me, Brisa is a wonderful, down-to-earth person, and she said yes straight away.

I was nervous! This was my first actual shoot on my own. It wasn’t for anything other than my portfolio, so there wasn’t really any pressure, but I am a perfectionist, and coming away from a planned photoshoot without any usable images doesn’t sit well with me. I didn’t really have much of a plan, I pretty much just tried to replicate what I’d learnt earlier in the week. So we shot in the same location (the pool) and at the same time of day (about 4 pm). I also had Jasmine, one of Foto Frenzy’s instructors, to hold the same flashlight for me.

This is what it looked like:

I was shooting with my Nikon D750, which is a full frame camera, and a 50mm f/1.8 lens. I started off shooting at f/2.8 until I felt comfortable with my focus, and then ended up shooting at f/1.8. We began with the sun behind and slightly to the side of Brisa, and used the flashlight to add some extra light to her face. Brisa has gorgeous long hair, which moves beautifully under the water, and added an element of motion. However, I got many shots where her hair actually ruined the image because it fell in a strange way, so be aware of this when choosing a model.

Here I was trying to capture the reflection on the surface of the water, but in hindsight, I really needed to use a wider lens. It was also really difficult for me to stay deep enough underwater to get the right angle without using weights. If I had to give you just one tip, it would be to attach some weights to yourself and to your camera, especially if you’re using a buoyant dome port. Oh, and wear a mask so that you can actually see what you’re shooting when you’re underwater.

After several sequences facing into the sun, I decided to see what it would look like with the sun behind me. I remember at the time, not liking the steps in the background at all, but this actually became one of my favourite images from the shoot, and it’s because of the texture created by the light.

In all of these shots, I remember asking Brisa to be aware of bubbles coming out of her nose. Fortunately, she can hold her breathe for a really long time (I would bob back up and dive under again to shoot while she was still relaxed and peaceful under the water), so she could really control her bubbles. Then I thought it might look cool to try to shoot some with bubbles. Of course, there were lots of unusable shots here but when it worked, it worked really well.

The only shot I actually had in mind before the shoot, was this one. Here we shot backlit and used the flashlight to catch in her eyes. This was also one of my favourites from the day.

I learnt so much in this short session - we probably only shot for about 35 minutes - but it really showed me that the best way to learn to do something with photography is just to try it out. I got lots of images that didn’t work but the ones that did, I think look beautiful. It also helps having a really beautiful model who is extraordinarily comfortable underwater. I really couldn’t have asked for a better person to shoot with, and hopefully we’ll get to shoot together again sometime.