THE SECRETS OF THE PROS
8. MASSIMO BOYER
I was born in Pinerolo, Italy, in 1961. My time is shared between Liguria and
Indonesia. I have been a diver and an underwater photographer since 1982, a
marine biologist since 1984. Since 1989, I have been writing on magazines
dealing with underwater life. To me, photography is a way of documenting species and behaviors. In this sense,
it is the more useful the more the animal is caught when doing something. I
like to use photography to show what the marine inhabitants are doing. Digital
photography, allowing us to spend time with an animal, waiting for it to do
something, shooting without having to worry about “click 36”, has introduced a true revolution. Not to mention the ease of seeing
immediately the results, which you really appreciate when you spend months on a
boat in Indonesia.
The main thing in underwater photography is to be able to foresee the animal’s next move, and to be ready. When you are working with some still subject, you
will be able to adjust the flash position, to do bracketing, but before you
have to be ready to catch the moment.
Currently, I am using a Nikon D90, Subal housing, lenses 60 and 105 macro, 10,5
mm, zoom 12-24 mm, all Nikon original. Flash Subtronic in TTL mode.
7. FABIO LIVERANI
Born in Faenza, Italy, in 1971, he has been into photography since 1989, and as
a pro, since 2001. Specialized in naturalistic and geographic photography, he
combines scientific and photographic competence. Rather eclectic, he visits all
kinds of environments with great passion, from altitudes to sea bottoms. He
searches with the same stubborness for flowers, plants, mammals, amphibians,
and all sorts of animals. He collaborates with the main magazines and
publishers in the Italian naturalistic area: Oasis, Geo, National Geographic
Italia, Piemonte Parchi, Parchi e Riserve, Istituto Geograļ¬co De Agostini,
I.E.P.A.. He has created the images of some books on nature, and has written
naturalistic stories for the children’s magazine Tony e Clint, that closed down some time ago, maybe because of Fabio’s stories... He works also on architectural photography and on images for art
catalogs and company communication. He is represented by the British agency Natural Picture Library. In 2007 he founded, with other photographers,
Photopharm, a school of naturalistic photography and reportage. For his diving pictures he
uses a Nikon digital reflex in EasyDive Leo II housing. For macro, he uses a 60 mm with 2 manual strobes and a lamp, for
ambient: a 12-24 mm lens.
6. ALEXANDER MUSTARD
British underwater photographer, Alex Mustard, 35 lives in Alghero, Sardinia,
but travels across the world to take photographs. He currently uses a Nikon D700 FX camera in a Subal housing. His favourite lenses are Nikon 16mm FE and Sigma 15mm FE, Nikon 16-35mm, Sigma
28-70mm, Nikon 60mm, Nikon 105mm and Sigma 150mm. He also adds various
teleconverters and close up dioptres to these lenses. For lighting he uses Subtronic strobes for wide angle in clear water and Inon strobes for macro and wide angle in
turbid water. For available light photography he used the Magic Filter, which he designed. He designs and builds a variety of equipment for his
photographs, including pole-cam systems, large dome port for split levels, off
camera slave sensors for his strobes, ring flash and more. He favours wide angle photography and loves to mix ambient and strobe light in his photos. He particularly enjoys
photographing individual creatures, hoping to endear the audience to his
subjects by revealing them as personalities, in simple, but eye catching
compositions.
5. FRANCO DE LORENZI
A diver for almost thirty years, Franco soon took up underwater photography,
going through the whole range of Nikonos, until now, that he has became a
sophisticated expert of Canon G7 and G10. He has won several competitions with his macros, shot with his unmistakable
style, and all based on a clever usage of black backgrounds, to enhance the
features of the subject. An underwater photo and marine biology instructor,
here’s what he says about himself: ”The more I looked (and keep looking) at other photographers, the more I realized that I don’t have that talent of “a different point of view” that makes a top photographer. I then decided that I could be better at
documentation photography. Therefore, according to my skills and vision of
subjects, I tried to shoot the best way I could the inhabitants of the sea, with a scientific-documetary attitude, waiting to
learn that special touch for composition that great photographers have”
. Looking at his pictures, Franco sounds way too modest.
4. MARTINA GAMBIRASI
From Genoa, a professional mechanical engineer, she has been diving for more tha
10 years with great enthusiasm in all the seas of the world, with a desire to
discover and to share, through her pictures and her website SCUBACQUEANDO, unusual and uncharted places, away from mass tourism. She collaborates with a
few international diving magazines, and with websites on travel, diving, and
photography. She journeyed from Brazil to Costa Rica, from Australia to French
Polinesia, she was in Thailand, Malesia, Indonesia, Philipines, Maldives,
Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, but she also loves Mediterranean dives. She started shooting
underwater pictures, in scuba, in 2000; since 2007, she’s been competing in the extemporaneous Underwater Photo Safari FIPSAS, with ARA, in the category Digital Compacts, with great success, in fact,
since 2008, she has been a member of the Club Azzurro di Safari Fotografico
Subacqueo FIPSAS, and she has been confirmed for 2011. She has already
collected a number of first, second, and third places in national and
international competitions. She is writing a book, with Professor Angelo
Mojetta, on Underwater Photo Safari, with a detailed description of the 160 most common fish
species of the Mediterranean, that will be published in 2011. She has a dream:
to build a small Eco Resort dedicated to underwater photographers in the Raja
Ampat archipelago, in Papua, Indonesia. She shoots exclusively with a
Canon G7 and with a G10, using only the on-camera flash, but she did not accept to reveal the secrets of
her macros.
3. OSCAR RULLI
From Cadiz, Spain, he shoots with a Nikon D200 in a Seacam housing. As for flashes, he uses a Subtronic Nova and an Inon Z 240. He is credited with 5 participations to the Spanish u/w photography
championship CMAS, 11 to the Andalusian championship, and as many to the Cadiz
one, and he has collected a number of victories, both absolute and in a
category. He travels a lot and produces reportages all around the world for
Spanish and international magazines, like Immersion, Espacio profundo, THMGZ
magazine, Acusub Digital magazine, Tauchen, West Coast Magazine, Estepona
Magazine.
2. STEFANO GUERRIERI
Born in Leghorn, I’ve always had a passion for the sea; since my childhood I’ve been snorkeling, then, on aqualung, I explored the seabed of my city,
discovering the wonders hiding under the surface. The beauty of the seabeds
pushed me to dive regularly, in all seasons, day and night. Being a fan of
on-land photography, I seamlessly moved to underwater photo. So, since1989, I
started my experience as an underwater photographer, using, at first, the
classic Nikonos system, then the analogic reflex with housing. This allowed me
to revive the emotions I had captured in the deep, and to share them with
everybody else, through publication on specialized magazines, and cooperation
with Marine Biology institutes of Tuscany. Curiosity, and a craving to expand
my knowledge, motivated me tu study, as a self-taught, research and
documentation on the underwater worlds of the Mediterranean sea, and to found,
with friends and diving companions, “A.R.S. Livorno” (Underwater
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Research Association), whose main goal is to make known the beauty and the
biodiversity of the seabeds near Leghorn. We then created the website
www.fotobiomare.com, dedicated to biological photography in the Mediterranean.
My taxonomic archive, available to all interested, describes more than 1000
animal or vegetal species, with thousands of images, that have been published
in various books in this sector, first of all on my books “Le Meraviglie di Calafuria” Forme e colori del mare di Livorno (The wonders of Calafuria, forms and colors
of the Leghorn sea), and Mare Vostrum. Currently, I shoot with a reflex with housing, the Fuji S2 pro, a digital reflex, that works in total TTL automation, with any flash, both
on-land and underwater. I prefer biological photography, pushed beyond the 1:1
ratio, using mainly the Nikon 60mm lens, with a flat port ant two 110 watts Sea & Sea strobes, used in TTL with the reflex in manual mode. Subjects and water
transparency permitting, I go in for ambient photo, mounting the same flashes
on longer arms and using mainly the Nikon 12-24mm lens, with a dome port. The housing and the ports are from Subal, while for focusing I prefer the pointing spotlights from Fa & Mi, gas-discharge, for their longer duration, and the technologically new LEDs,
safe and reliable in time. Compared to the last-generation digital reflexes,
the Fuji S2 pro, that I have been using since 2004, has the advantage of
working without TTL problems, with any electronic flash, even of different
models and makes. However, its autofocus is slow, and the viewfinder is too
small, making it difficult to shoot macro. The 110-watts underwater flashes
from Sea & Sea are very compact, good both for macro and for wideangle, to which I always
mount a diffuser; they only have one weakness, or strength, in that they start
only when the electronics is 100 % charged, which prevents underexposure, but
it makes it impossible to shoot quick sequences, for example during fast fish
predation.
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1. PAOLO FOSSATI
I currently work with a Nikon D90 hosted in Patima housing that I consider a small technological jewel. The choice is justified by the
need to be “lean and slender”, because I always dive with two housings. My philosophy is “opportunity never knocks twice”, in other words, what I see today in the sea, and I don’t shoot, I might never see any more. Therefore, diving with two housings requires them to be as small and light as possible.
Nowadays, even in airports, life has become harder and harder, and priority
must be given to weight and volume. As for lenses, I use the magical 10-17 Tokina which, in spite of a not-too-high quality, ensures an umbeatable versatility. I
believe that the spherical dome port from Patima, coupled with this lens,
peovides an optimal performance. For macro, I use Micronikkor 60 AF and Micronikkor 105 AF.
Flashes: Sea & Sea YS 250 Pro for ambient, and INON Z 240 for macro (they might be ok for ambient, but they are a bit slow at recharging).
Arms: as long as possible, to give light exactly where I want, and to avoid
regretting something I couldn’t do.
In the last year I’ve been diving on a scooter, which expanded my “horizons”, allowing me to save on air and explore much larger areas than I could afford with my own stengths.
© duwphoto.com
2011
