Over and Under

There is a time-honored technique in underwater photography of shooting "over/unders" which are essentially pictures that combine an underwater subject and the above-water landscape.  The trick is to hold your underwater camera in such a way that half the lens is above the water, and half below.  Well, as I discovered today, this ain't easy...  I was trying to shoot verticals, e.g. with the camera turned sideways, of dolphins swimming under some flooded trees.  But between dolphins moving, me treading water, a strong current, and having to float on my side, it was a comedy of errors.  

I have a staff of three helping me, but all they could do was laugh at my contorted positions.  Fortunately, being Brazilian, they couldn't understand my swearing through my snorkel.  (But I think they got the gist.)  Having said that, by mid-afternoon, exhausted from effort, I had several dozen rather terrific shots : with above-water rainforest in the top half of the picture, and an underwater dolphin in the bottom half.  

Back at it again tomorrow.  By the way, I cannot post shots I have taken here : it would violate my NG contract.  But I can show you one my German asst. took today of me getting ready to get in the water.  This, believe it or not, is my UW getup.  The hat is to shield my viewfinder from the sun so I can see what the hell I am getting.