Show your first ever U/W Pics

[TimIngmire]

I thought it would be interesting to go back and revisit some of my old photo's - it's nice to see how I may have progressed over the years.

So, I thought I'd post up my first ever UW photo's.

These were taken in 2003 on the Hood down at one of the entrances to Portland Harbour. I had just bought an Olympus c5050 with the Oly housing - no additional lenses or strobes and you can see obvious results from that.

The first photo of the Spider Crab really was the first ever photo and one that I considered not posting given the fact that the crab is being held.





The second is of the first cuttlefish I ever saw in the wild and I was pretty excited at seeing it - I decided to spend some time photographing it and over a period of say 2 minutes managed to get about 4 photos of it. Funny, at the time I thought that that was showing some real dedication! I was very pleased with the result and I still quite like it - tho more for sentimental reasons than any technical or artistic merit.





And the last is the Hood itself - which you can no longer dive following the restrictions put on it.







Anybody else fancy showing some of there first shots?

[triplefin]

My first ones are just a set of prints taken with a disposable and not having a scanner I cant post them. As they were taken whilst on a Red Sea trip and fairly shallow there are a few colours in them but technically awful. Still worth keeping tho as they are capture a moment in time. Looking at photos often takes me right back to the time and place I took them and I can remember what I thought and felt at the time.

[Cerianthus]

I started in 2005, with a Minolta 7xi in an Ikelite housing and a single Ai strobe. This is not the first shot, but it is from the first roll of film (film is a type of memory card ) It was shot in relative clear and calm water (Grevelingen). I was quite happy with the shots and the system. I left it because it was too difficult to learn anything (if I took the rolls to the shop on monday, I'd be lucky if I could see results thursday). And in 2006 I spent a whole week in Zeeland, did several dives, and due to a faulty connection or something similar, there was only one picture lit, out of 6-7 dives.

[David P]

OK, right. My FIRST ever UW pic - from about summer 1973 or 1974 - with a cheapo film camera in a football bladder contraption... Yeah, it's a fish!


I'd used Nik III and Nik Vs with very mixed success from 1979 to 2000 - but I've not got them scanned... I went (gently) digital in 2003 and the following are the first pics from my Oly 4040 ("secret spot" in Dorset - I've still never been quite so lucky with mullet since):








(They've all been lightly processed - my favourite "Picasa" bodge!) Larger versions are at Picasa Web Albums - David P - Misc.

[Cussy]

Nice idea Tim, I've taken this a bit further.

This is from my first attempt, snorkelling in Gran Caymen with a Kodak disposable camera, which Boots totally knackered on trying to process - hence the scratches on the picture (1999):


My next attempt was in Hawai'i. This was with a Fuji disposable and is still one of my favourite photos (again snorkelling), 2001:


I then wasted loads of money on a Nikonos 4. This is from it's first dive in Stoney Cove (2003):


This is from the Nik4 on it's one and only sea trip, in Plymouth. I was so pi$$ed off with the results that I thought I'd give up underwater photography (2003):


But I couldn't give up, and housed my Olympus 4000. This was from it's first stupidly shallow dive on the worst holiday I have ever had (evil ex-in-laws) in Mallorca (2004):


Flooded the Oly and bought a 7070, this is it's very first photo in 2005:


And then I went DSLR, and after spending stupid amounts of money, this is the first shot I managed and all photos were this bad. So it wasn't too surprising that I didn't get a mention in the Stoney Splash-in (2007):


Looking through my first series of images I was very reliant on "effects" to hide the fact that the photos were rubbish. I am pleased though that every single underwater camera I have used (bar the first one in 1999) features on my favourite images on my website. Afterall, the camera is just a tool, it's just some tools seem to take a lot of learning.......
Rob

[TimIngmire]

Nice build on the thread idea Rob.

This is the vrey first photo I took with my D70 in the housing.

It was taken in Killary Harbour in Galway and I was very very nervous taking it into the water.

This shot was really just to get used to the camera and make sure everything was working as it should.

[Jules]

I am still looking for the first ones I took on my 5050. I lost all my pics when I dropped my laptop. I do have some CDS from early on that I need to look through and see if there is anything worthwhile.

What is funny is that you keep them all when you start but now I delete most of mine only keeping the very best.

I'll post something on here soon

Jules

[Dr. Strangelove]

Well just registered and figured this would be as good a place to start as any. I have only been taking pictures UW for a little more than a year, all of them with my Nikon 5200 in a Nikon case (no external flash, can't afford it )

anyway here are a few of the 600+ pictures I took in the first week I had gotten the case (got it for a trip to the US virgin islands)


one of the very first pictures taken.



some of these pictures may have been given the Auto levels treatment in Photoshop..is that considered a crime?

here are some more resent pictures taken in colder waters

[TimIngmire]

Hello Dr Strangelove and welcome to the site.

If these are your first photos then you have done very well indeed. Seriously!

You'll have to show us the pictures you're getting after your first year of shooting.

As for a tweak with Photoshop - it's not a crime at all so go for it.

Tim

[Dr. Strangelove]

Originally Posted by TimIngmire

Hello Dr Strangelove and welcome to the site.

If these are your first photos then you have done very well indeed. Seriously!

You'll have to show us the pictures you're getting after your first year of shooting.

As for a tweak with Photoshop - it's not a crime at all so go for it.

Tim

Thanks.
The top four (warm water) pictures are among the first pictures i ever took under water (I got the case a week before going on that trip)
The bottom four pictures are recent (the bottom 3 were taken last Saturday off the Isle of May).