Raves & Rants . . from Penzance

When you get into trouble on the Cornish coast, these are some of the people that will come and find you, no matter what the weather. Most RNLI personnel are volunteers, so the idea was to also show their other jobs. In the case of Commander Chris Channing though, he is full time at Culdrose  Butcher and Coastguard All shot for a Cornwall Today article about the new Search &Rescue exhibition at the National Maritime Museum , Falmouth. Return to Ocean-Image.com

Yes, I admit it, I have indeed been shooting babies.  Underwater, even.  The water housing, camera and I have been sitting on the bottom of various swimming pools as part of a project with the good people at Baby Aquatics , while a stream of brave little nippers are skilfully put through their sub-aqua paces. While at first it might sound outrageous to plunge your darling 3 month old beneath the water, in fact the babies retain a reflex action to close the epiglottis, and are completely safe and happy beneath the surface. There are a lot of technical challenges in getting these photos - including avoiding the legs and arms of the trained baby diving professionals and watchful parents when photographing underwater, while at the same time avoiding getting the same objects into the shots before the child is safely whisked back into the parental arms.  Subsequently coping with the underwater blue shift in the colour of the light and removing extraneous arms and le...