What Brought Me to Underwater Photography of Swimming?
- Mickaël Malaper
- Jul 11
- 6 min read
If you have followed me on social media, you will know I’m passionate about underwater photography of swimmers. Capturing athletes beneath the surface offers a unique perspective, freezing their motion in what I like to call their “natural habitat,” the swimming pool!
Let's dive straight into it! 🤿
Sections:
1. Early Days: Discovering the Underwater World
Growing up in Brittany, France, I spent countless summers snorkelling along our rugged coast. By age ten I was already diving among crabs, shrimps, and fishes, marvelling at seaweed swaying with each wave in this alien underwater world.
Back then, underwater digital cameras were in their early years and GoPros didn’t exist. My first underwater photography system was a simple film camera without a fancy zoom lens on, all of this packed in a very basic underwater housing: a shutter button, a film winder, and that was it.
I shot roll after roll of dubious images in terms of lighting, composition and camera blur - but nothing stopped me from diving back in!
Skip forward to 2009, ahead of my first lifeguard season with the SNSM (France’s RNLI equivalent), I upgraded to a rugged Olympus digital compact camera. Being able to preview/view photos on the LCD screen was thrilling, and I came away with vivid memories from both above and below the waves.
A year later I got my first GoPro Hero. It became my all‑purpose camera: recording lifeguard drills, spearfishing expeditions, snorkelling trips… and, once I became a swimming coach in 2011, underwater swim technique videos with the athletes I was supporting.
This has stuck with me over the years, and I am still doing it to date in my private coaching sessions!
2. Turning to Swimming Photography
If you have read some of my previous blog posts, you will know that before I started to photographing swimming and the aquatics, I used to coach swimming in a club (read the post here).
And before that, in my last job in France I was a full time swimming teacher in a swim school nearby the city of Vannes. One week a photographer came around to take underwater portraits of the kids during their lessons. Seeing those images sparked an idea that stayed with me over the years.
Fast forward to me starting to photograph swimming on competitions, connect it with that previous experience and my love for free-diving. Then the idea that was planted in my mind started germinating and I went on a journey to find an Underwater housing system where I could fit my camera (a Canon Eos R at the time).
After spending a few weeks researching, I finally found a brand I was happy with and I ordered my first housing in 2020 at the middle of the pandemic!
Given the context of the pandemic, I didn't have much of an opportunity to test it out straight away, but I started experimenting with it in my club as soon as the pools reopened after months of lockdown.
3. Mastering the Technical Challenge of Underwater photography
Underwater photography demands mastery of your camera’s settings on land—and then doubling the challenge with additional factors to deal with while photographing under the surface:
Buoyancy & Bulk: The underwater housing is very buoyant and floats, feels chunky, and in some cases has restricted controls.
Fears of a leak in the housing: Every shoot starts with “What if it floods?”. I guess it is a healthy kind of reflection while placing a very expensive camera body and lens inside an underwater housing. The pre-shoot checks need to be thorough and are always a little nerve wracking I have to say! But so far so good I have never had any issue of leakage inside of any of my housings.
Holding Your Breath: Juggling exposure, playing with settings under the surface while holding your breath when swimmers cruise overhead can be fun, but means that you need to know your settings inside out!
If you are a photographer yourself, you need to understand those 2 different types of shooting scenarios if it come to underwater photography and how to apply the exposure Triangle Underwater:
When shooting in Ambient Light:
Open wide (f/2.8 or faster with a prime lens)
Fast shutter (of at least 1/500s or faster if needed to freeze the action and prevent overexposed images in bright light)
Set ISO for constant light source and base or auto ISO to balance the rapid changes of lights that can occur under the surface in an outdoor setting
When shooting using Strobe Lighting:
Flash synch max is usually around 1/200s
You can combine ambient + flash by slowing shutter or on the flip side remove it by increasing the shutter speed to the max synch speed.
Stop down (f/8) to avoid overexposure and enabling a good overall sharpness of your subject reducing the risk of not having the focus in the right place.
ISO 100–800 depending on pool brightness, swimmer skin tone, and flash power output setting.
The distance to subject is another criteria to adjust the power of the output of the flash. The further away you are, the higher the power setting needed; when you're closer, you can use less power.
The higher the flash power, the longer the recycle time between flashes. This is problematic for fast action, since missed flashes can throw your image into total darkness!
A typical starting point for shooting with strobes is:
Aperture: f/8
Shutter speed: 1/125 s
ISO: 400
Strobes: base power
As you can imagine, it took me a while and a few sessions to figure out what were the best settings to get the right exposure and get the best resulting images. How to use the very poorly available ambient light within most swimming pools, and lastly finding striking compositions.
Freezing Motion at “Slow” Shutter Speeds:
You might wonder how 1/125s can freeze a swimmer. The secret is flash duration: the burst of light from a strobe lasts only milliseconds. It’s that burst — not the shutter — that locks the action, while the longer shutter can let in ambient blur for creative effect.
4. How did I learn underwater photography?
Well, on that front I learnt through a lot of trial and error, and figured out what equipment I needed by watching online videos on YouTube amongst other sources such as blogs of other photographers, and making some educated guesses (sometimes less educated too!).
Each pool session refined my understanding of light, composition, and the quirks of shooting underwater.
It was a process that took time and perseverance to achieve, but having a goal in mind and some inspiration from others producing this kind of imagery kept me striving forward to achieve my vision!
5. Beyond Swimming Pools
Underwater housings aren’t just for swimming pools use. Earlier this year, I explored Sri Lanka’s reef wildlife.
And just last week I snorkelled in Menorca, mesmerised by crystal‑clear waters!
In aquatic sports environments, I’m also looking forward to future opportunities to photograph:
Water polo
Artistic swimming
Diving
Open‑water swimming (including triathlon)
If you are part of a club or coaching one of these disciplines, don't hesitate to get in touch and let's create some stunning images together!
And beyond sports:
Underwater portraits (artistic, maternity, engagement)
Marine wildlife on future travels
Submerged landscapes
These will be more than certainly be part of future underwater adventures!
6. Final Thoughts
Underwater photography is both technically demanding and at the same time endlessly rewarding type of photography. The possibility of creativity at the interface between water and air open a new dimension of imagery not often explored.
I have only scratched the surface here. In the future, I may compile a detailed equipment guide covering housings, strobes, and brand comparisons for every budget.
For now, remember: practice is your best teacher. Play with ambient light and strobes, experiment with settings, and let curiosity drive you. Who knows what captivating moments you will freeze next?
Thank you for reading this deep dive into my journey. If you have any questions, or poolside tips, drop a comment below or message me on my Instagram @Malaper_Photography_Sports.
Swimmingly yours,
Mickaël
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