Scuba diving in Bodrum, Turkiye, August 2024

Underwater scenes from Bodrum dive sites Smugglers Bay, Black Island, and the Dakota C47 plane wreck (not in order).
Equipment used
Camera: Redmi Note 10 Pro
Housing: SeaLife SportDiver ULTRA Pro 2500 Set
My Philosophy about underwater videography
In my videos, I like to give a true representation of what it is like for scuba divers in the underwater world.
When diving, my aim is to become one with nature and blend in as best as possible. Thus I tend to swim slowly and stop to let fish approach me, rather than the other way round. I just love watching the sea creatures doing their thing, so this sometimes takes a while. They are in no rush. And there is no point trying to chase them; we will never win that race and just waste precious air in trying to do so.
In comparison with ‘commercial’ underwater videos which are designed to attract the ever shortening attention span of today’s audience, I tend to take shots for as long as the fish play ball and hang around. No rushing from one rock or coral to the next and showing one second clips to keep you captivated. If you find this boring, then my videos are not for you. Move on to your next kick…
Lessons I learned on this trip
Water absorbs light and the deeper the diver goes, the less light can penetrate. Thus most color is lost, starting with red, orange and yellow. So without the aid of a lighting system, you see very little color below 10 meters and almost nothing at 30 m.
This was the first time I used this new equipment, which includes a standard red filter with the camera housing, as well as the Sea Dragon 2500 video light.
Sadly, I only read the manual when I got back home and discovered that I should EITHER have used the red filter, OR the video light when at depth. Also, I forgot to remove the filter when I was less than 10 m deep, so the video in the shallows came out really blue.
School fees paid. Making mistakes is how we learn. Until next time…
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