What's like to be a fish?

April 28, 2006 12:15 PM

Air and water. Photographer and professional diver Emmanuel Donfut takes not-completely-underwater pictures. His latest series involves both fish and fishermen caught in the act, but he's been interested in other aquatic creatures, and alcoholic ones as well. More pics here, and more on the technique used here.
posted by elgilito (10 comments total)

oh my god those guys are HUGE!
posted by fidgets at 12:27 PM on April 28, 2006

I'm glad you included the technique link, 'cause those pictures totally looked faked. They're pretty cool, though.
posted by OmieWise at 12:33 PM on April 28, 2006

Great post, elgilito, and cute find, fidgets. I was just about to comment on how the water and the depth field contrive to completely screw up the perspective, and make some of the fish look about twelve feet long.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:34 PM on April 28, 2006

^depth of field
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:34 PM on April 28, 2006

I saw this technique used for a Field and Stream cover many years back. Seems the photographer used an old fish tank to shoot from. I was really impressed then.

Speaking of fish: These shots remind me of the first fisheye lens shots I ever saw. The first shot was great, the tenth was, well, nice.

This interest-to-bordom process was even quicker with the first multi-image filters I used. Same deal but I was bored by the second shot.
posted by BillyElmore at 12:49 PM on April 28, 2006

awesome.
posted by mathowie at 1:47 PM on April 28, 2006

very neat!
posted by gnutron at 3:54 PM on April 28, 2006

While I find the concept interesting, I don't particularly care for these photographs in an artistic sense. The composition, for me that is, really isn't there. To me they seem more of a novelty than art. I like the David Doubilet images done this way better for example.
posted by Eekacat at 3:54 PM on April 28, 2006

Wow, seeing the beauty of those fish reminds me of how sad I am about the state of rivers and oceans. Two independent panels came together to warn that failure to act now to protect the oceans would lead to "an irreversible situation five to seven years from now, that will grow exponentially," [worse], summarized by another reporter as "a state of collapse from which there is no recovery." Doomsday predictions aside, aren't they shutting down the SF Bay salmon season because the Klamath population is so low?
posted by salvia at 9:03 PM on April 28, 2006

Yeah, BillyElmore has it right. The fish tank shooting technique is actually pretty old and well known. It's always good to see well done pics though.
posted by JJ86 at 4:24 PM on April 29, 2006