Crafting Underwater Perfection

The Ken Findlay Standard in the wonderous kelp forests of False Bay.
Text & Images by Ken Findlay

Ken Findlay is a marine biologist, with a passion for ocean and wilderness photography. With over thirty years’ experience in marine mammal sciences in southern Africa, the Southern Ocean and elsewhere, Ken’s more recent work centres on ocean governance and the management of ocean economies and their associated conflicts. His career has allowed him to travel extensively, including to many of the world’s wild spaces (often with a camera). His passion for wildlife, wilderness and ocean photography that merged with his diving and freediving interests early in his career. Starting out with a Nikonos IV in the early 1980s, Ken’s happy space is in the shallow kelp forests of False Bay, where he is continually amazed by the ocean and reef colours, patterns and diversity.

“I like to have a clear idea in my head of the images I want before a dive or a trip. How much of that I can achieve really depends on the opportunities that arise.  Merging my imagined with my experienced to develop images and allow others to see ocean and wilderness as I see them is really what grabs me about the mindfulness of photography.”

“I often try to position underwater subjects within their environment in what I would call close-wide imagery. I seldom use the camera viewfinder, preferring to compose images over the top of the camera, and allowing closer and tighter framing of images, while at the same time keeping me well off the reef substrate. Most of my kelp forest photography is carried out while freediving, allowing much greater flexibility and access than I would have on scuba. Images are often crafted over multiple surfacing, in a process that includes looking for subjects, assessing the ambient light, backgrounds and best angles, looking for the best access to the subject and only then starting to craft rather than “take” the photos. I might well spend the most of a free-dive session on one subject, experimenting with different lighting angles and camera and strobe settings to reduce the backscatter so prevalent in Cape kelp beds.”

“Kelp forests are, to me, the most awesome underwater environment to photograph. I love the combination of the freediving exercise and the creativity of photography. I largely shoot upwards towards the surface against the ambient light (please, please never try to shoot downwards from the surface unless the subject warrants it – results are often so disappointing).

Get low, get close (and then closer) and look upwards while at the same time being really aware of where you are in relation to fragile reef fauna. There are some days that I see great subjects or potential images, but know that surge won’t allow access, that light or tidal depth might be better at a different time of day and often I will come back when I feel conditions on that subject will be a little better.”

He currently shoots the underwater world using a Canon 5Dmkiii or 7Dmkii camera bodies in Nauticam housings. Lighting is supplied by one or two Inon Z330 strobes (usually at very different settings and positioned differently for each subject). All images are shot on manual settings at a set shutter of between 1/90th and 1/160th of a second with aperture settings based on ambient conditions. The majority of images are shot using a Tokina 10-16 fisheye lens that allows extreme close focus photography through a minidome port, although he also makes use of a Canon 16-35 f2.8 in a large dome port if shooting wider scenic images. It has taken him some time to learn the optimal settings for different depths, visibility and aspects within kelp forests as opposed to open water or other reef systems where similar setting produce very different results. Critical here is the understanding that the wide is captured by the camera settings while the close is captured by the strobe settings, with different strobe distances having a huge bearing on close exposure.

The portfolio showcased here is a small selection of Ken’s imagery that can be viewed on www.kenfinphoto.com. Please feel free to contact hm via this site if you have any questions on images or how they were crafted.