Cold-Water Photography, Exploration, and Marine Conservation Q&A

We chat to the Canadian underwater photographer, creator, explorer, and marine conservationist Jett Britnell concerning the challenges of cold-water images and organising expeditions to among the most-remote locations on the planet.

Photographs by Jett Britnell

Q: As we all the time do with these Questions and Answer classes, how did you first get into scuba diving?

A: I used to be 5 years outdated within the early Nineteen Sixties after I occurred to look at Sea Hunt, an American scuba-diving action-adventure tv sequence. It appeared from that second I used to be hooked on the notion that someday I’d turn out to be a scuba diver.

Beyond watching TV documentaries similar to The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau or thumbing by the pages of National Geographic to comply with the shark-diving exploits of Australia’s well-known shark-diving duo, Ron and Valerie Taylor,

I discovered methods to snorkel within the current-swept Ottawa River after I was ten to retrieve misplaced fishing lures from the river backside. In August 1980, I used to be 22 years outdated after I discovered methods to scuba dive in British Columbia’s Emerald Sea.

Q: You have been taking images underwater for many years, and your imagery has graced the pages of many magazines, together with my former title Sport Diver UK. When did you first choose up an underwater digital camera, and what drew you to this self-discipline?

A: Like many who take up the artwork of underwater images, I initially simply needed to indicate household and associates what I noticed underwater. I’m a 100% self-taught photographer who discovered methods to regulate digital camera f-stops and shutter speeds whereas six fathoms deep.

Unlike in the present day the place everybody appears to have a digital underwater digital camera system, this was all again in the course of the movie days after I can be one in every of two or three individuals on a diving liveaboard taking pictures photographs underwater.

In time, my undersea photographs had been deemed ok to be printed, however the scuba journal editors required us to jot down tales to accompany my photographs.

My first printed story was a four-page centre-spread characteristic article in Canada’s DIVER Magazine in August 1987. One of my photographs additionally graced the journal’s entrance cowl in that very same subject.

I actually by no means regarded again after that and went on to turn out to be an internationally printed diving photojournalist, which can appear reasonably stunning for somebody with none formal writing diploma or images coaching.

“I have been credited as being among the first people in British Columbia to expound on the need for the preservation of marine life”

Q: You are sometimes credited for placing British Columbia’s undersea realm on the world stage. This is an extremely numerous ecosystem, however what are among the largest challenges with taking pictures in colder waters?

A: When taking pictures in chilly water all the elemental fundamentals in underwater images apply similar to getting near your topic, getting low, taking pictures at an upward angle, and making an attempt to fill the body with the topic

Lower ambient mild ranges and suspended particulate within the water column are on a regular basis challenges that may efficiently be overcome with strobe positioning and lighting strategies.

The color steadiness in British Columbia’s Emerald Sea is decrease than in tropical seas, so I now usually shoot at 5,200 levels Kelvin to barely scale back the greenish color solid, whereas, in tropical blue seas, I’ll dial it as much as 5,700 levels.

Another consideration is to make sure one has sufficient thermal safety to your physique, head, and palms.

Q: You are a Fellow of the distinguished Royal Canadian Geographical Society, a Fellow of the on the earth famend and unique Explorers Club, and a Fellow of the famed Royal Geographical Society in London. You have additionally been concerned in lots of expeditions round our watery planet. Tell us about among the most-memorable initiatives you’ve been concerned with over time.

A: I’ve been credited as being among the many first individuals in British Columbia to expound on the necessity for the preservation of marine life by my articles and public shows. I’ve additionally included point out of British Columbia’s First Nations tradition each time potential.

My considering was indigenous cultures are celebrated world wide, so why not in British Columbia too?

Among my most-memorable initiatives are the diving and articles we have now written about Nakwakto Rapids, a spot situated on the entrance to Seymour Inlet, roughly 320km northwest of Vancouver in a distant part of British Columbia’s coastal mainland.

In latest occasions, the Guinness Book of World Records as soon as listed Nakwakto Rapids as having ‘the fastest navigable tidal currents in the world!’ – as much as 39km per hour throughout its largest tidal exchanges!

A infamous title Nakwakto Rapids can now not lay declare to as lately, the turbulent currents at British Columbia’s Sechelt Rapids had been measured as being a tad sooner, with an equally beautiful reef scape as Nakwakto.

Q: You are a staunch supporter of marine conservation and environmental schooling, what have been a few of your largest successes and initiatives?

A: There have been so many initiatives by the years that I documented with journal tales. Two initiatives that proved satisfying to me for various causes had been the dives we did on the SS Princess Sophia shipwreck.

The second was discovering the placement of a First Nations burial web site on a distant stretch of wilderness on Vancouver Island’s western shoreline.

The sinking of the SS Princess Sophia occurred roughly six years after the infamous sinking of the RMS Titanic. Hence, the worst maritime catastrophe on the west coast of North America grew to become the ‘Unknown Titanic of the Pacific’.

Our goal on this expedition was to {photograph} this deteriorating shipwreck which sank on 24 October 1918. Soon after the publication of one in every of our tales concerning the destiny of Alaska’s SS Princess Sophia, the Alaska State Museum contacted us by the Underwater Archaeological Society of British Columbia.

The museum curators had been very excited a couple of crate of photographic plates on the wreck that I discussed in our article as they believed the invention of those photographic plates might be essential artefacts to the historical past of Alaska.

Alaska Fisheries Research additionally reached out to us about our printed picture of a bigmouth sculpin. They had been intrigued that I had captured an precise underwater photograph of this not often photographed fish species and requested if they might embody it in a science presentation about Alaskan fish habitats.

The second venture that springs to thoughts was throughout our second expedition to distant Kyuquot Sound, off Vancouver Island’s west coast, once we found the traditional First Nations burial web site we had been searching for, replete with moss-covered skulls which we had been capable of {photograph} for posterity.

After we had our story printed, I obtained a letter from an Archaeologist from Seattle. He acknowledged… ‘It was a wellwritten and respectful article, Sacred Burial Sites of British Columbia’s First Nations.

I couldn’t have mentioned it higher myself – and that’s my enterprise! I’m going to have my workers learn it as nicely. Maybe I can persuade one in every of them to take up diving with me’. I’ll admit that suggestions felt fairly good.

Q: You are sometimes joined in your adventures by your spouse, Kathryn. She can be a proficient underwater photographer. How do you determine who’s going to be in entrance of the lens, and who’s going to be behind the digital camera?

A: As it’s typically mentioned, ‘teamwork makes the dream work’. My spouse Kathryn is certainly a proficient photographer/author in her personal proper. We co-author an exploration, images and journey column for Luxe Beat Magazine beneath the banner ‘Third Age Expeditions’ (www.luxebeatmag.com)

I’d categorize our working model as being each collaborative and fluid. Either one in every of us will mannequin underwater for one another or do no matter is important to assist the opposite in getting the shot.

We endeavour to emulate what I’ve all the time felt had been the prototype underwater image-making married {couples}, similar to Hans and Lotte Hass, Ron and Valerie Taylor, Howard and Michele Hall, Stephen Frink and Barbara Doernbach, and David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes.

One can’t assist however up their sport finding out the work of those legendary underwater image-makers.

Q: What is your most-memorable diving expertise?

A: My first time diving with six-gill sharks was an absolute thrill! Over two days we counted multiple dozen six gills on each dive. That has not occurred to anybody since then.

Another memorable second has stayed with me. It was again within the late Nineteen Eighties once we had been diving in open water with a pod of Pacific white-sided dolphins.

I used to be taking pictures with movie on the time, and it was late afternoon. Sunlight was fading. All my fellow divers had returned to the skiff. I knew with the velocity the dolphins had been swimming previous me, I used to be not capturing any photographs value protecting.

Hanging at about 12m in a 90m-deep channel, I felt calm however solely had about three minutes earlier than I must floor. It was then I noticed three dolphins collectively they usually had been going to rocket previous me.

I had one body of movie left. But I might inform from expertise I used to be not going to get a shot. I lowered my digital camera from my facemask and simply soaked up the expertise of being within the water with the dolphins.

As the three dolphins flew previous me… I believed to myself nicely, that’s that. All of a sudden, one dolphin broke away from the others when it was about 15 metres away from me. It swam straight again towards me and stopped lifeless within the water proper in entrance of me. I raised my digital camera to my eye and snapped an image.

Now, that is the place that dolphin made my backbone tingle. As quickly as I lowered my digital camera, it nodded at me thrice after which blasted off to reunite with its associates. I then surfaced and obtained into the skiff. Everyone was asking me… “How was it? How was it?” I replied, “You are not going to believe what I am about to tell you.”

Q: On the flip aspect, what’s your worst diving reminiscence?

A: Truly, I don’t embrace dangerous diving recollections. I had by no means been blown out by the dangerous climate on a dive journey till I went to North Carolina in 2016 to dive with sand tiger sharks.

High winds stored the dive boat tied to the dock the complete week, so we used our floor time to tour the impeccably restored pre-Civil War Fort Macon, together with visiting the Old Burying Ground cemetery in close by Beauport.

The earliest legible date on one of many grave markers is from 1765, though many consultants estimate that among the graves are older than that.

Had we been out diving, we by no means would have visited these two historic websites. Of course, with over 40 years of diving expertise, there have been a couple of that might be deemed as being shut calls. But these misadventures had been rare and are greatest shared within the night hours over a nice bottle of single-malt scotch.

Q: What does the long run maintain for Jett Britnell?

A: In March 2024, Kathryn and I will probably be doing a little scuba diving in Antarctica’s Circle and Weddell Sea with Aurora Expeditions from aboard their purpose-built, polar-class expedition ship MV Sylvia Earle.

Beyond this, our calendar is comparatively open to what or the place our subsequent task will probably be. We wish to return to Tahiti to snorkel with humpback whales. Increasingly, we’re being contacted to take part in undersea and topside exploration initiatives or editorial assignments.

FAQ: Jett Britnell – Underwater Photographer & Explorer

Q: Who is Jett Britnell?

A: Jett Britnell is a Canadian underwater photographer, creator, explorer, and marine conservationist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, The Explorers Club, and the Royal Geographical Society.

Q: How did Jett Britnell get into scuba diving?

A: Inspired at a younger age by TV reveals like Sea Hunt and documentaries by Jacques Cousteau, Britnell started snorkelling as a baby and discovered to scuba dive in British Columbia’s Emerald Sea in 1980.

Q: What are the challenges of cold-water images?

A: Cold-water diving presents decrease ambient mild, suspended particles, and color steadiness points. Jett makes use of cautious strobe positioning, adjusts white steadiness (round 5,200K), and ensures correct thermal safety to seize high-quality photographs.

Q: What notable expeditions has Jett Britnell been a part of?

A: His initiatives embody documenting Nakwakto Rapids in British Columbia, photographing the SS Princess Sophia wreck, and discovering a First Nations burial web site in Vancouver Island’s wilderness. He has additionally labored on assignments worldwide, from the Philippines to the Bahamas.

Q: What is Jett Britnell’s function in marine conservation?

A: Britnell has been an outspoken advocate for marine life preservation in British Columbia and past. His articles and images spotlight conservation points and infrequently combine recognition of indigenous cultures.

Q: Does Jett Britnell collaborate with others on his expeditions?

A: Yes, Jett typically works alongside his spouse, Kathryn Britnell, who can be an achieved underwater photographer. Together, they co-author Third Age Expeditions for Luxe Beat Magazine.

Q: What are Jett Britnell’s future plans?

A: In 2024, Jett and Kathryn will dive in Antarctica’s Circle and Weddell Sea with Aurora Expeditions. They additionally hope to return to Tahiti to snorkel with humpback whales and proceed contributing to exploration and conservation initiatives.

Jett Britnell works

You can see extra of Jett’s work following these hyperlinks:
Website: www.jettbritnell.com
Website: thirdageexpeditions.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jett.britnell
Instagram: www.instagram.com

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This article was initially printed in Scuba Diver UK #83

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