What's the Easiest Fish to Photograph Underwater?

Smallmouth Bass Underwater (c)Eric Engbretson

I received an email the other day from someone who asked me what I thought was the easiest fish to photograph. Well, none of them are that easy to photograph well, but if I had to pick one that gave me the least trouble, it would be smallmouth bass. The reason for that is they have a unique inherent curiosity and sociable nature. They’re not by nature a timid fish so they'll eagerly come around you. I think they've learned that divers stir up food items. They’ve kind of put that together. So when you get in the water, you’ll get them following you around after a while. It’s not unusual at the end of a dive to have 15 or 20 smallmouth bass in a parade, following you. 

If a smaller one comes too close to you the larger ones will chase them away so they can have exclusive access. Because they are so friendly and easy to approach, you can blow all the bubbles you want to or spend crazy amounts of time fooling around with different camera adjustments or lighting angles without worrying about them being scared off.  

They're an excellent fish to spend time with if you're a novice photographer, because they have loads of patience. But after decades of underwater photography, I wouldn't say photographing them is especially challenging. At the end of a dive, if I can’t find anything else, that’s when I do the smallmouth pictures.

So, what's the most difficult fish to photograph? I think it's the carp. They are so aware. They have excellent vision and hearing. They can see you so far away in clear water and if you make any slight noise, they're gone. Even if you don’t blow a bubble but you take a breath, it makes a tiny whooshing noise. It’s such a tiny sound, but they hear that and they react. You have to be so still and so quiet. 

What I do with carp is I pick a spot where I know they’re milling about and I get behind a rock and hide and hopefully one will cruise by. If they see you it’s over. They’re really smart and are really sensitive to the bubbles of divers. That's why they give me so much trouble. But they're not the only species that are bothered by bubbles. Crappie, yellow perch, trout, catfish, sturgeon are some others. They’re all hard to get close enough to to get great pictures. To be successful, you need patience, and frankly a lot of times luck.

Mastering the Close-Up Fish Portrait: How It's Done

The number one mistake novice underwater photographers make is failing to get close enough to their subjects. Since freshwater fish are relatively small, you have to get extremely close to them for striking, frame-filling pictures. On the other hand, this isn’t as difficult as it may seem. 

Once you see a fish, you need to make a quick assessment of its potential for your photographs. If it’s swimming away, let it go. Swimming after a fish is futile and results only in pictures of tails, not the stunning full-body portraits that you’re really trying to make. You’ll want instead to concentrate on fish that are not in motion. These are the easiest fish to photograph. 

Once you see a fish nearby, the first thing to do is to freeze and let the fish come to you. If you remain motionless and quiet, many fish are curious enough to swim right up to you for further investigation. Any sudden movements will cause them to swim away quickly. Remain still and allow the fish to become accustomed to your presence. After a few minutes, if the fish doesn’t approach you further, and it doesn’t swim off, move in closer. Do this slowly and only a few inches at a time, pausing with each new advance. 

Always try to approach fish mainly from the front. Let the fish see you. Because this approach is an unnatural tactic for a predator, the fish will more likely regard you as non-threatening if you behave like this in a slow and deliberate manner. As you move in closer and closer, stop to take a few pictures. Continue to move closer while carefully watching the fish. At some point, you will go beyond the fish’s zone of acceptable comfort. This is when the fish will retreat because you’ve gotten too close. But if you move slowly, studying the fish as you approach, you’ll see early signals from the fish that you’re getting too near. It may begin to get nervous, to turn, or move slowly away. This is where you stop. This is as close as you’re going to get to this particular fish at this time. This is where you take your close-up pictures. 

If you’re doing it right, you should be only one to three feet away. Your pictures at this distance will be amazing, especially in very clear water on a bright sunny day! It’s important to keep in mind that fish vary from lake to lake and species to species. Don’t be disappointed if you don’t get near enough for that breath- taking close-up every time you shoot. There will be other opportunities. With time and patience, you’ll enhance your skills at this method. With experience, you’ll get within arm’s length of most fish most of the time. 

If you have a question or comment about photographing fish in freshwater environments, you can contact me at eric@underwaterfishphotos.com

Largemouth Bass Underwater in HD

We're getting some really nice Largemouth Bass images this summer showing these fish using thick weed cover, sunken timber and other natural habitat elements.  Check out all our latest Largemouth Bass in our Largemouth Bass Gallery. We're also getting some very nice HD video of these fish and we have some superb b-roll footage available.  As always we're interested in partnering with producers of outdoors related content who are looking for excellent high-quality underwater footage of freshwater game fish to include in their programs and films. For more information on licensing our video clips for your project contact us.  

Working with Fish Models

When photographing fish underwater, the trick is to get as close you can and shoot through as little water as possible. In freshwater environments, even the clearest water has a lot of suspended material in it that will degrade picture fidelity, so getting close is paramount. This smallmouth bass was only a foot away from a camera equipped with a wide angle lens. The wider lenses are necessary so that the entire fish and some of the scene can be included in the frame. Some fill-flash from strobe lighting is added to bring out the color and fill in shadowy areas. Even on bright sunny days, ambient light underwater quickly degrades after only a few feet under the surface so supplemental lighting is always helpful. 

Smallmouth bass make excellent subjects because they tend to be very friendly and curious fish and will easily approach a diver with a camera. This is an older fish that I've worked with before as a photo model. He (or she) has somewhat of a back hump which makes him (or her) easily recognizable. I photographed this fish against a background of northern watermilfoil. Anytime you're able to include a nice background like this curtain of plants, it helps make the picture more interesting and gives the viewer a sense of the underwater habitat where these fish live.

I'm sometimes able to enlist the the same fish as a model if I've been able to establish a relationship with them.  This can occur only after many repeated encounters and a certain level of comfort develops.  While fish may never understand what we are, they know we’re not the otters they see who move with great speed and agility and should be feared. We’re probably regarded more like the way they view snapping turtles.  We're large, plodding creatures with no real underwater skills who aren’t a threat unless we get very close. 

Over time, the fish begin to notice that as we clumsily move through the water, we create a disturbance.  Unseen insects and other invertebrates that are hiding on plants or on the lake floor may be exposed or displaced and to the fish, they magically appear for them to eat.  Maybe a crayfish is suddenly seen fleeing and again a food item is summoned out of nowhere. They may begin to view us as sorcerers who can conjure up food items by our mere presence.  If they arrive at this conclusion, the entire dynamic between fish and us changes.  We become viewed as a waiter or sorts.  Instead of fearing us, we instead become something that should be paid attention to and even followed around so they’re able to snap up any treats that we may cause to appear.

Prettiest Underwater Video of Smallmouth Bass!

Smallmouth Bass are amazing fish and I wanted to show them in all their magnificence, in a very high quality underwater HD video.  I’ve looked at many videos of Smallmouth Bass and none of them truly convey the grace and beauty of this fish and the stunning splendor of their underwater habitat.  This is my video tribute to Smallmouth Bass.  I hope you enjoy it.

Engbretson Underwater Photography Channel Trailer