Join the conversation
Subcribe to comment rss feedoptions for the landscape photographer
Theo Bosboom
Theo Bosboom is a passionate photographer from the Netherlands, specialising in nature and landscapes. In 2013, he turned his back on a successful legal career to pursue his dream of being a fulltime professional photographer. He is regarded as a creative photographer with a strong eye for detail and composition and always trying to find fresh perspectives.
My first try under water, autumn landscape with the Canon Powershot G10 in a ‘200 euro Canon underwater housing
Introduction
Landscape photographers are rarely active underwater. The Swiss photographer Michel Roggo has done an extensive project about wonderful freshwater locations all over the world. And there are a couple of mainly Australian photographers like Warren Keelan and Ray Collins that take inspiring wave images while in the water with the use of underwater gear, mainly above water but sometimes also (partly) under water. And that’s about it, as far as I know.
Whereas the use of drones has boomed within landscape photography, the opportunities for underwater photography are hardly exploited, if at all. And this is remarkable, because the underwater world is perhaps as photogenic for landscape photography as the world seen from above and still offers many opportunities to create fresh and unique work. Since specialised underwater photographers almost always focus on wildlife (small and large) in oceans and seas, you could say that for underwater landscapes, there is a gap that photographers could or perhaps should jump into.
Perhaps the Dutch saying 'unknown makes unloved' applies here. And perhaps landscape photographers fear having to dive or snorkel to take underwater pictures, which would make everything much more complicated and require a lot of investment and training. But it can be done differently. I have built up quite some experience in underwater landscape photography over the years. And that's without having ever dived or snorkelled. Nor will I do so in the future, as problems with one of my ears prevent me from diving.