Once again, summer has taken its sweet time getting to Seattle. But now that it seems to be settled in for a bit, it’s time to hit the pool and get some underwater shots!

I always make a point to test my underwater case a couple weeks before my first scheduled shoot just in case anything happened to it while in storage the past nine months. Like I always do, I sealed it up without the camera inside, put on some goggles, took it underwater, gave it a squeeze and watched for bubbles. If I can squeeze bubbles out, that means water has a way to get in, so I absolutely do not want to see bubbles. Sadly, there was in fact a stream of very tiny bubbles coming out of an area that I had repaired two years ago. I really did not want to see that.

Careful examination revealed, however, that there was in fact not a new leak. Rather, the epoxy that I had previously used had broken down and was starting to flake away. I cleaned it all off, mixed up a batch of new epoxy (a different brand than I had used before), and resealed it. A follow-up test performed a few days later revealed all is well!

(But how’s that for a good lesson? A piece of equipment that had been in my cabinet untouched for nine months still developed a problem. Always test your stuff before you actually need to use it!)

Equipment is, of course, only one of the components needed for a successful shoot. It also helps to have models! This year I wanted to accomplish two things: 1) scale back the overall number of shoots, and 2) only use models I have not worked with previously. The reason for the first item is that in previous summers I’ve simply done too many underwater sessions and then felt a bit rushed when doing the processing. By limiting how many I do I hope to move at a more relaxed pace… hey, isn’t that what summer is supposed to be about?

The second item is a bit of an experiment, an attempt to just mix things up a bit. The models I have lined up have different backgrounds and only one has done underwater before. I’m really looking forward to the wide variety of ideas, looks, poses, etc. that I expect they’ll bring.

As always, thanks for reading. If all goes well, I should have the first galleries up by the end of July.