Renting Underwater Photography Gear

I recently had a friend email me asking advice on where to rent an underwater housing for a DSLR. Since this is something I have often thought about using, I figured I would investigate. I first checked a local rental house and was unsuccessful. The next place I looked was a larger rental house, that had been around for quite a bit longer. So I expected them to have the housing since they have an expanded range of products available for rent.

What I found was a bit surprising. They didn't rent any specific underwater housing rigs either. Instead, they rented an underwater kit or 2 that would provide customers a lesser camera for a cheaper price.
In their defense, they had a great explanation as to why they don't invest into this kind of accessory.

"About twice a month we get a call asking us to carry underwater housings. This is a much bigger deal than people realize. Each SLR camera requires a specific housing, and each housing requires several lens covers, all of which become immediately useless in two years when that model is replaces. When we do the numbers , we'd end up charging about a third of the purchase price for a rental."

Here is the scary part:

"More importantly, underwater housings have a very real failure rate, and when they fail, the camera inside is toast... no repair possible. Logic tells us that if you can afford to ruin your camera, you can afford to buy an underwater housing. So for those of us who can't we've provided in the DX-2G kit."

DX-2G 12MP @ $140

What a fantastic business decision! They took the smart way out, yet still provided the customer with a solution. The rate for the model mentioned was about $140 for 2 weeks. Far less than the specific housing I finally found for the camera my friend asked about which was $660 for the same amount of time, not including the underwater housing required for the specific lens that would be used. At that price for 2 weeks, I would almost rather bite the bullet, and spend the $2,000 on a kit in case it was needed for further shoots.
I guess the big thing to consider here is that the "lesser" camera at the cheaper price in the first kit I mentioned is only a 12MP camera. While the more expensive kit will allow much more camera control and will bump the resolution up to 21MP. Now, you just have to ask yourself if that is worth the extra 500 or so dollars, and does the shoot require as large a resolution as possible?

Aquatech Camera Body Housing
possible 21MP @ $ 660
cost of lens housing not included.

Please visit the links below to take a closer look at the kits I mentioned above.
AquaTech DX5 Underwater housing for 5DMkII
Sea & Sea DX-2G Underwater kit

Picking the right location

Occasionally there is a place I will see around town and immediately think to myself "I would love to do a photo shoot there." The problem is that most of the time these places are a bit eccentric and unique, requiring a subject with a very distinct look, an elaborate costume, or some creative makeup that links the subject to the location or is in high contrast to the feel of the location.

Sure, I will be the first to agree that these things will enhance the quality of a photo, I just lack the financial backing to pull off something of the sort at the moment. Luckily, every once in a while, schedules will line up and I will have the opportunity to make something happen without all the fancy production that can go into a shoot. So, I was pleased when a friend of mine contacted me and was interested in doing a shoot at one of these locations.  As it turned out, a location I came across several months ago, and remembered well, would work perfectly with the look of the model I was to shoot. After all, it doesn't really get any better than street art and pink hair.  

This is the first time I have had the chance to put to use some of the off camera flash techniques I have started learning from the fabulous Speedlighter's Handbook by Syl Arena. Some of the techniques that are touched upon are off camera flash using Master flash/slave flashes. For the majority of the photos here, I disabled my on camera flash so that it would only send a "pre-flash" to the slaves that were off camera, telling them what to do and triggering them so that they would be just strong enough to fill in some shadow areas that were being cast by the overpowering sun. In order to learn more, I highly recommend visiting the pixsylated blog, you are certain to come away with something helpful when it comes to shooting both on location or in the studio with Speedlights.