The Elephant Man

Peter Rowlands · Issue 33, Nov/Dec 2006 · pp. 24–26

Products mentioned: Canon EOS 1DS Mk II, Subal housing, Canon 15mm F2.8 fisheye, Canon 14mm lens, Canon 16-35mm lens

There are some things most ordinary people don’t do straight after they’ve had a few rudimentary lessons on scuba diving. Underwater photography, for a start, is best left til you’ve mastered the subtle art of buoyancy and, for sure, getting in the water to photograph a 5 ton male elephant should be put off until you’ve at least completed the PADI “Photographing 5 ton elephants” speciality course. But then Steve Bloom could never be ordinary and his first real foray into underwater photography has produced some absolutely extraordinary images. UwP was delighted to catch up with him during the launch of his new book “Elephant!” to find out more about the man and hear how he got on with his first underwater shoot. I first interviewed Steve back in 1996 when his image retouching business had just gone digital. A couple of years earlier he had had his film images scanned following a two week…