Towards a Fellowship

Staff · Issue 7, Jun/Jul 2002 · pp. 20–22

Products mentioned: Minolta Dual Scan, Epson 1520 Photostylus, Photoshop

Most of us who take underwater photographs go through a phase of wanting to show our pictures to other people and be assured that we are taking ‘good’ pictures. We show them to our friends, we go in for competitions, we try to get them published......and some of us go for Royal Photographic Society ‘Distinctions’. Someone once asked me why I went to the RPS for ‘affirmation’ of my ability as a photographer, when ‘surely, they can’t understand underwater photography’. Well, OK, taking pictures underwater is hard and there are special considerations to deal with like back-scatter, absorption of reds and the need to get very close to subjects. But many other advanced nature photography techniques are hard too - birds in flight or pitcher plants suspended high above the ground in low light below the rain forest canopy. The basics for good images though are the same - good lighting, good comp…