Photographer Creates Epic Band Shot By Taking The Group Underwater

I had wanted to do an underwater shoot for years, but the logistics are extremely difficult. Underwater housing are expensive to rent let alone buy. The first pool I approached (at a prominent university where I have a strong alum connection) said they didn’t want pictures of their pool facility because of possible terrorist activity. I guess I didn’t explain my idea clearly enough for them.

Flash forward to 2018 and my dear friends and legendary Colorado band, Jack & Jill approach me wanting a new band photo. I gave them this idea that we would create a shot where they are playing in front of a crowd, but floating on stage. Again, I don’t know how well I conveyed my idea, but they were on board.

First step was creating our background image. We had a couple dozen people join us at our local theater. I lit it like a full-on concert and had the crowd dance to a stage of nothing.

Step two was taking the band to a pool to shoot them underwater.

There were some issues:

1. The first pool wouldn’t let us in because they were afraid street clothes would affect the pH of the pool.

2. I didn’t realize that my wireless flashes wouldn’t transmit/receive while underwater.

3. Holding a pose underwater is very difficult.

4. Bubbles are really annoying to photoshop out of an image.

5. The bass player bailed on us so we had to find a last minute sub.

We were able to figure out some good workarounds to all these issues. My assistants all had to hold flashes with the receivers above the water while I could only submerge my camera up to the transmitter. I was also able to find an affordable housing, however, putting $8k worth of camera into a sub $100 underwater housing was terrifying.

More info: jackplusjill.com