PHOTO FREEDIVER
NEUTRAL BUOYANCY
Freedivers – and scuba-divers who also freedive/snorkel, for example during big-animal encounters – can still practise underwater photography at a high level once they reach a reasonable level of skill. MARK HARRIS wrote the classic book on the subject, Glass and Water – and here, in the first of two extracts, he looks at how to achieve the level of control needed to leave the diver time to focus on getting the picture
THE STATE OF neutral buoyancy is the nirvana scuba divers aim for. Freediving photographers at least make a nod toward achieving this neutrality; not all achieve the right balance.
If you watch modern natural history documentaries, the last 10 minutes often show a feature on how some scenes were shot. For underwater films taken by freediving videographers, this can be invaluable viewing.
What I sometimes see is a videographer using up valuable energy correcting his or her underweighting. To the untrained eye it can be easy to miss, but if you look at the body angles relative to the surface, it becomes apparent.
Do freedivers really need to worry about this? Does it matter if we look ungainly on our dives? The answer to both is an emphatic “yes”. Every fin-kick we make should be for the purpose of motion towards a location or target. If it is a corrective kick to offset over or underweighting, then it is wasted energy that translates into a reduced breath-hold.
Our spatial awareness will also improve considerably when not having to fight the forces trying to take us up or down. Not only does it look right, it feels right.
Analysing Mass
Before we start to put the right practices into place, let’s analyse the factors that affect our buoyancy. Firstly, it would be a good idea to compare what we are and what we carry, to the density of water.
Wildlife videographer Doug Allan (shown filming humpback whales) is notable for being proficient with freediving buoyancy skills. He has it down to a tee, and his other freediving techniques are very good too. He is a good example to follow.
SUE HOOD,TARTAN DRAGON LTD
‘You go down to the bottom of the sea, where the water isn’t even blue anymore, where the sky is only a memory, and you float there, in the silence’