"The engine room of the San Francisco Maru in Truk Lagoon"

Persistence, Patience and Perfection

As a photographer, it pays to have an obsessive compulsive personality; that is if you want to obtain high quality imagery. Depending on how severe a case of OCD you have depends on whether or not you will ever be content with your photos. Review your images, be your own worst critic and have the persistence to go back and take a shot over and over again until you are satisfied. No matter how good the photo is, a perfectionist will always want to do better. Using this approach will likely result in a continual improvement in your photography but, it may drive you a mad if you are not being patient during the process.

The Evolution

The sequence of images below is a shot that evolved over the years with the last one being the most recent and the one I'm most satisfied with to date. The San Francisco Maru is one of Truk Lagoon's premier dive sites but it rests in 200'/61M of water making it a challenging environment to shoot in. Having to penetrate the engine room for this photo makes it more demanding and difficult to closely analyze the images during the dive. I had to shoot and scoot, return to the editing station, review the shot in detail and come up with a new plan afterward. Was all the effort worth the payoff? I feel it was.

<Attempt 1

2008 Nikon D200. The engine room was hazy, the dynamic range of the camera poor and the angle was off. 

2> 

2017 Nikon D800. The results weren't good even with improved dynamic range and visibility.

<3

Oct 2019 Nikon D850. Superior dynamic range, increased high ISO and secondary lighting all helped. 

4>

A month later I tried again but from a different angle. Obsession setting in.

<5

Two weeks later I added a second video light but vis was poor.

6>

One week later the haze cleared and used the same plan. Am I done? I don't think so. I may have a few new ideas to play with but for now this will do. 

Join me on one of my dive photo expeditions, including Truk Lagoon, where I will be offering comprehensive photo and video techniques. Visit the Travel drop down menu above. 

Join me in Truk Lagoon for Rec•Tec 2020: https://www.evolutionunderwater.com/mike-gerken-truk-lagoon-rec-tec-photo-expedition-odyssey