Michael Rothschild

I use a compact 100mm dome port for my fisheye lens, which is better for travel when luggage space is at a premium. One tradeoff, compared to a larger dome, is the limited ability to do over-under photos, so I do not do a lot of them. But this topic lends itself well to these shots. Over-under images are a great way to depict the boundary between two worlds—sea and surface. These photos evoke the story of the two transitions that are part of every dive: splashing in at the beginning, and breaking the surface at the end.

Each of these images uses the air-water interface to make the sea itself the subject, as opposed to its usual role as background. Photo 1 shows a diver poised to reboard a dive boat. A key compositional element here is the ladder that just let him haul his sidemount rebreather to the deck. Photo 2 shows the same diver in the shallows of a shore dive, dwarfing the lone surface observer in the background. And Photo 3 shows a harbor shack, its bright red paint contrasting with the blues and greens of the seagrass and rocky ledges, over which it was built.