Dive Into Your Imagination

Sea Lions are Fun to Film!

On a recent trip we had two dives with sea lions. I knew the behavior of the animals and what to expect. The juveniles will always come and play, yet during mating season the males will get aggressive making loud noises and displaying to protect their breeding grounds. I wanted to capture both of these behaviors and animals.

In addition, I wanted to capture other divers in the scenes too. Depending on the story line you are creating, it is a well known fact that people like to see people in underwater documentaries, it gives the audience something to relate too. Shots of divers often make great cutaways too and can be used in storytelling.

Editing and Shooting Tips:

There is a photographer taking pictures of what appears to be a cave. I captured him on film and when he was through went with my video camera and lights and had a “cut-away” to the sea lions playing within the cave.

It is easy to get carried away when swimming with sea lions. If you chase them, you will never capture them (as with most animals or people whether on land or in the water). Animals usually have patterns and it is up to you to figure out their behavior and their territory. By observing and playing with the sea lions before picking up your camera too film or shoot, you can often capture special moments and behavior. Remember video is all about action and your viewers need to see this. If you have watched chapters 3 or 4 of The Camera Coach, watch to see how many shots actually go into making this clip that is less than one minute long.

Lighting tips:

Upon entering the water, I knew it was going to be green, the color of green vegetable soup. Before even getting into the water, I knew I would want to stay shallow and KEEP THE SUN AT MY BACK. This is the key to every image, unless you are going after a certain type of effect with lighting. I had to white balance continually because the lighting changed over and over again as the sun kept going in and out of clouds. With both still and videos, lighting is 100% key to any shot you make. Also, I did not shoot any animals below fifteen feet because I knew from experience I would not be able to use any of the images because of water conditions, so I forced myself to stay shallow and shoot what I knew would work. With that said I used ambient light in some of the shots and my lights in others. Can you tell where I used my video lights as fill lights?

Music and Narration:

This piece has a certain happy feel to it because of the music that was chosen to go with it. The piece would totally change in feeling if we changed the music selection. Also, if I had my dive buddy Conner right a script to go along with the piece, it would change the story once again. Conner blogs on the DIYI site under Cool Kids You Should Know and this was his FAVORITE dive experience of his life! You can use the same footage in a variety of ways, in a variety of stories. It is up to you to tell your story how ever you want. The greatest thing about video is you can change it. As you acquire new footage, you can add it to your old footage.

Story About the Dive:

On this trip I set my white balance slate down on a rock together with my tripod. I was not using my tripod and I needed to white balance my camera. The next thing I knew, a juvenile sea lion swooped down and grabbed the lanyard around my white balance slate and swam away with it to the inside area of their playground. It was never to be scene again. I gave my camera to my assistant to hold and crawled around in about two feet of water looking for the darned culprit and my slate. The Amphibico White Balance Slate I use is priced at 100 bucks, that was the last thing I wanted to lose to a sea lion pup!

Lesson:

Be careful of all dangling objects around sea lions! Thank goodness it wasn't my camera!

WANT TO DIVE WITH SEA LIONS? SIGN UP FOR ANNIE'S SEPTEMBER 2009 SOUTHERN ISLANDS TRIP IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA!

Find out more about Annie’s next trip you can join! Want to go on a trip with Annie, CONTACT her now!

The Camera Coach® The Camera Coach®, Your Guide to Creating Underwater Video demonstrates and teaches you the necessary techniques needed to produce great video above and below the surface. You will learn shooting, lighting and editing techniques. This DVD teaches you sh

Who Lives in the Sea? The Award Winning “Who Lives In the Sea?” teaches children and their parents about animals living in the ocean. Why do dolphins move so fast? What kind of noise does a sea lion make? Did you know turtles walked with the dinosaurs? Meet whale sharks, o

PLAY PLAY Life is a game everyday! Sea lions, Channel Islands, California

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