Underwater Pregnancy Portraits by Rosemary Allen

Former underwater videographer Melissa Oliver, joined us again in February, but this time she wasn’t behind the camera but on the other side of the lens. We got together to celebrate and record a special time in her life. We where privileged to be asked to shoot some creative underwater portraits of Melissa during her pregnancy. We have been planning similar shoots for quite some time so, were very excited to get the project underway working with someone who we know well.

Our starting point was a series of images that Melissa had seen and found inspiring, we discussed what would be possible within the time frames and what would not be too strenuous on her and the baby. Working underwater  can be demanding and physical, so we had to be sure that our model was happy and safe during the shoot taking into consideration the pregnancy. Melissa is very experienced in the water so we knew just how far we could push the shoot.

Our team consisted of Lisa Denholm - make up artist, Lara Dakers - support diver, and Rosemary Allen, we also must give special thanks to Jeffery Glenn from Ban’s Technical Diving for his additional lighting help. The images where shot with a Tokina 10-17mm on a 7D with Inon Strobes. We shot towards the end of the day which helped with the crazy light effects but also posed other technical issues.

We love how beautifully serene Melissa looks and the lighting effects we managed to create. We didn’t quite pull off some of the ideas we had but we learnt a lot from the project and are looking forward to our next creative shoot which we are busy rubbing our hands with glee to get on with. Watch this space :)

Underwater Portrait by Rosemary Allen