Split Water Photoshoots allow me to generate imagery that defines Okinawa. If nothing else, Okinawa is about the Ocean. It's sheer aesthetic in this unique location is the first thing that captivates most people. Okinawa is the Ocean. For many of us, as I count myself in these statistics, for many of us the Ocean serves as something more than a simple body of water. It is something more, something spiritual. I can remember as a young lad growing up in the south coast of England in a seaside town. I would often seek out the beaches when contemplating the myriad of obstacles confronting an adolescent lad at the time. The Ocean has always played an integral aspect in my life. As a place of solace, a place to engage in sporting endeavors from sailing to windsurfing. It then went on to become my 'office' so to speak as I progressed into underwater cinematography ending up as an underwater cameraman with National Geographic.

I'm always looking to do something different with imaging, ways to stand out from the plethora of photographic services on Okinawa. It is an adventure that started about five years ago when I began offering the Milky Way Photoshoots which fast became one of my most requested photoshoots to date. With that desire to 'be different' I can now say that I have another quite unique photoshoot option available for folks in Okinawa, and beyond.

Given the potential for clear, inviting, and warm shallow tropical waters around the Ryukyu Islands nothing enhances your Okinawa experience more than by incorporating this aquatic medium into your memories. By using leading edge imaging equipment I am able to offer truly unique imaging service known as a Split Water photoshoots. You may have seen travel imagery from far flung dots in the vast Pacific ocean where you can see both above and below the water line. This is now something that I can offer as a photoshoot for all clients ranging from private through corporate and promotional sectors.

Some folks may be thinking that a similar aesthetic could be accomplished with a GoPro or similar action camera in a wet housing, but the reality couldn't be further from the truth. Forget the marketing fluff of small dome port products. For numerous photographic reasons a fixed aperture lens, such as the GoPro with  its maximum aperture of f2.8 cannot rectify what is called water refraction. Refraction is the phenomena when, for example, when you see a pencil in a glass of water it appears to not line up correctly, it appears broken. This is due to the magnification, or refraction, of the water. One needs to have manual control over the aperture in order to ensure it is much smaller than f2.8 to rectify refraction.

Physics of shooting through a dome port also require the ability to set manual focus on what is called the virtual image. Due to the form factor of a dome port when it interacts with light it projects an image to a point other than what may seem as the obvious focal plane due again to the magnifying medium of water. Don't get me wrong, you will get an image with a GoPro, but it won't be truly of a standard reflective of the moment you wish to capture from a quality standpoint. Many of the smaller action cameras also do not shoot in an acceptable RAW file format to allow optimum post production, editing, once the photoshoot has been complete.

There are some other considerations to take into account that have to do with the optimum lenses to use in order to offer impactful split water photoshoots as well as additional hardware to ensure the best image possible. I won't bore you with those details about the physics of the setup, I mean, I can't be giving all of my secrets away now, can I? But trust me, these kinds of imagery cannot be created with an action camera to any great qualitative standard.