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One Year of Underwater Movies in Central America
Ever since getting scuba certified in Koh Tao back in 2014, I’ve been obsessed with diving. But it wasn’t until 2020 that I even considered taking a camera underwater. At the time all I had to try it with was a cheap action camera in waterproof housing: a now outdated Akaso model.
I used it to record my journey of becoming a divemaster in Puerto Galera, the Philippines: a place I became stuck at for 6 months during the COVID lockdowns.
Fast forward to June the 5th of 2021 and I was stepping off a plane and onto Costa Rican soil. I was on the first day of what would be a year-long dive-odyssey around the lower half of Central America.
During those 365 days I was to learn much about using more sophisticated underwater cameras to capture better videos and photos of my scuba diving excursions.
Before we dive in – let me just say: I don’t consider myself to be a professional underwater photographer at all! My story is that of someone with no academic background in photography; who discovered it by accident whilst traveling and through much trial and error seeks to constantly create better underwater movies and photos.
It is an ongoing process with no definitive end-point in sight; I love traveling round the world and diving at new locations – and with the help of underwater cameras I can now document the entire process. I hope that by recording my experiences, it’ll serve as a useful blueprint for others wishing to follow suite.
Ok; now that’s out the way, let’s dive in!
Costa Rica
To tell the truth, when I first arrived in Costa Rica I didn’t realize how long I’d be there and I had no plan beyond scuba diving somewhere new to provide fresh content to write about for my blog: Diving Squad.
But after just a couple of months; I received an awesome opportunity. Paralenz – a revolutionary underwater camera company; offered to send me their Vaquita 1st gen dive camera so that I could test-try and promote it.
Compared to my akaso action camera, the Paralenz Vaquita 1st Gen was in an entirely different league! It’s the only camera with an underwater colour correction feature that automatically adjusts white balance in accordance with depth. The result is videos and photos that have ultra-realistic colours and none of the blue-green tinge of uncorrected footage.
The Paralenz Vaquita can shoot 4K at 60fps for exceptionally smooth videos as well as capture super slowmotion videos at 240fps for 1080p. It also provides data on your dive profile and grid coordinates which can then be submitted along with your videos to marine research organizations via the Paralenz app.
Say hello to the Paralenz Vaquita!
When I first got the Paralenz Vaquita I took quite a few dives just getting used to it. For one thing; because it’s shaped like a torch (which it’s often confused for!), it’s a little tricker to hold stable so the first bunch of videos I took with it were pretty shaky!
Paralenz have released a trigger style grip for the Vaquita which makes it a little easier to hold stable but I also found that just by holding it with two hands; one cupped in the other as well as getting a feel for the limits of it’s stabilization tech I was able to capture smoother vids after a few goes.
It also took me a while adjusting to the much wider variety of shooting options you have with the Paralenz Vaquita; you can rapidly switch between video, photo or 2 custom setup modes for video or photos in addition to a dive log and manual setup.
At first I felt a little overwhelmed by all this. I didn’t know where to begin with the Vaquita – what were its strengths and weaknesses? What was the best way for me to use it to document my underwater adventures?!
Whilst trying to figure all this out, I was diving around Playa del Coco: a tranquil seaside town along Costa Rica’s north pacific coast in Guanacaste province.
Playa del Coco is teaming with turtles, whitetip reef sharks and rays including southern stingrays, eagle rays and mobula rays to name a few! There’s also massive schools of pelagic fish such as spottail grunts as well as plenty of smaller fish including butterflyfish, porcupine fish and sergeant fish as well as crayfish, octopus and even the occasional nudibranch.
It was here that I used the Paralenz Vaquita to shoot the underwater scenes to my first scuba diving movie of Central America:
It took about 10 dives to make this video: at the end of every day’s diving I’d upload all that I’d captured with the Vaquita onto my computer and then trawl through it; taking copious notes about angles that worked, types of shots that would lead well into another and so forth.
There were hours of video and I watched every last one, sifting through each clip before either binning it or naming it after whatever definable thing made it worthy of not binning. I experimented with shooting videos at 4K/60fps, 1080p/240 fps and 1080/120fps plus I snapped hundreds upon hundreds of photos.
Something I quickly realized was that the Paralenz Vaquita is much better for capturing high quality videos than it is for taking photos. It still takes decent photos, which, thanks to it’s DCC (depth controlled colour correction feature), have ultra realistic colours. But because it’s image sensor is only 12 megapixels, they’re not very detailed.
Videos on the other hand are absolutely superb: at the highest setting of 4K/60fps you get insane definition and wonderfully fluid movement whereas at 1080p/240fps one can capture extremely high quality videos in super slow motion such as here:
After Playa del Coco, I headed way down south to explore Isla del Cano; a 3.2km squared island some 12km off Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. In pre-columbian times Isla del Cano was used by indigenous communities to grow medicinal plants but in today’s era it is the most strictly protected biological reserve in the country.
There’s actually a lot of dive sites around Isla del Cano but most are closed off to the public – only scientists can explore them, which they do a lot in order to research the effects of coral restoration. That’s because Isla del Cano is home to the last remaining big coral reef along Costa Rica’s pacific side.
Having heard of Isla del Cano as a Mission Blue Hope Spot, I was eager to explore the 5 dive sites that are open to the public, so there I went and with me I took the Paralenz Vaquita with which I filmed the beautiful coral reefs of Isla del Cano as well as many more whitetip reef sharks, rays, turtles and fish.
The underwater scenes were captured using my Paralenz Vaquita and once more I also filmed getting there on the boat using my Iphone and a gimbal as I’d done at Playa del Coco.
Afterwards, regarding the boat footage I decided that once you’ve filmed one backroll entry – you’ve filmed them all! This combined with the fact that I wanted my movies to be shorter and punchier persuaded me to take a break from boat filming for a while.
I then traveled back up to the northern end of Costa Rica’s pacific: this time to explore the Catalina Islands and Bat Islands; two famous dive destinations which can be reached on a half day trip from Playa del Coco.
The Bat Islands are famous as a place to witness bull sharks – I’d already tried to see some there during my first visit to Playa del Coco but I’d had no luck. The second time I went, there weren’t enough other people interested in going to the bat islands for it to be worth the dive centre’s while so it was another unsuccessful mission!
I did get to visit the Catalina Islands, where I’d hoped to see one of the manta rays for which they’re famous; but none were seen! This was possibly due to the fact that a red algae bloom reduced the water visibility to just a few meters. We did hear humpback whales singing on every dive though! However, I got hardly any footage that I could work with. Such is the reality of trying to film nature.
Afterwards, I headed over to Costa Rica’s Caribbean side to try and dive Puerto Viejo in Limon province. However, choppy water conditions meant that I didn’t get a single dive in there.
This was the second dive trip in a row that I’d spent considerable time, money and resources on but walked away with nothing to use from it for my blog – which was supposed to be funding all of these expeditions! Shortly afterwards, I contracted a pretty hardcore stomach bug which left me ill for months!
When I finally got better I headed back down to Isla del Cano; this time armed with a new weapon: the Sealife Micro 3.0: another underwater camera designed for divers.
Say hello to the Sealife Micro 3.0!
I soon realized that whilst the Sealife Micro 3.0 has automatic underwater colour correction, it’s not as sophisticated as the Paralenz Vaquita’s. That’s because the Sealife Micro 3.0’s colour correction doesn’t adjust with depth so you must choose between two modes: shallow or deep. However; it’s still very decent at producing underwater photos and videos with highly realistic colours.
Also, unlike the Paralenz Vaquita, the Sealife Micro 3.0 can be used above water which is extremely handy. It’s videos aren’t quite as high quality (with the highest setting being 4K/30fps vs the Vaquita’s 4K/60fps) – but it does take much crisper photos than the Vaquita as it has a 16mp sensor vs the Vaquita’s 12mp. Plus, the Sealife Micro 3.0 turns on much faster, has a longer battery life and a bigger display making it way easier to see the shots you’re framing.
I was excited to reach the conclusion that compared to one another, the Sealife Micro 3.0 and Paralenz Vaquita have different uses; neither is flat out better than the other.
The Paralenz Vaquita is definitely the best underwater camera for taking the highest quality videos with although it’s small display, short battery life and awkward-to-hold shape makes it harder to use. The Sealife Micro 3.0 meanwhile is easier to use and takes the highest quality photos.
I shot all of the underwater scenes for the following movie with the Sealife Micro 3.0:
Notice the reef manta ray in the video! I saw several during this trip to Isla del Cano. I also included myself for the first time because I was trying to reach a bigger audience and I’d been told I needed to get some of my mug in there to help grab people’s attention! I decided to use an approach to narration that was somewhat tongue-in-cheek!
Because the Sealife Micro 3.0 takes some great photos I also allocated more time to snapping pictures as well as just taking movies all the time. Here’s a couple of my favorite snaps taken with the Sealife Micro 3.0 whilst I was in Central America:
Coiba: A Prison Turned Sanctuary
After my second round at Isla del Cano in Costa Rica, I decided to embark on a big diving spree around a bunch of new locations. So I headed further down south to Coiba Marine Park: a group of 39 islands some 14 miles off the pacific coast of north-western Panama.
The largest of the 39 islands: Coiba was a prison until 2014 and for this reason human activity in the area has always been pretty low. This, combined with the park’s position within the Gulf of Chiriqui which acts as a buffer against El Nino temperature swings means there’s a thriving marine ecosystem there.
To dive around Coiba most people stay at Santa Catalina and make half day trips to reach the southern edge of the marine park. However, in order to access the more remote, off-the-beaten-track dive sites I signed up for a special overnight trip which involved staying at Pixvae; a tiny and remote fishing village much closer to the northern perimeter of the marine park.
I was one of just half a dozen divers to do so and as a result we didn’t see any other dive boats over the following days. What we did see were scores of whitetip reef sharks, literally dozens of southern stingrays congregating together, endless turtles, massive schools of trevally, big eyed jack and tuna as well as several great hammerhead sharks!
(Sadly it’s kind of hard to make out the great hammerhead sharks because the water was so cloudy but you can briefly see one at 00:50).
Coiba Marine Park Diving Squad movie
I made the above movie with shots I’d taken using the Paralenz Vaquita on some dives and the Sealife Micro 3.0 on others. It was really fun to use both cameras for one project! It also got me thinking…how could I record my underwater diving missions with more than one camera at the same time…?
After Coiba, I headed over to Panama’s Caribbean side to explore Bocas del Toro archipelago; a group of islands to the country’s northwest which are famous for the insane biodiversity of the shallow coral reefs that are abundant around the islands.
It turned out that the fame of Bocas del Toro was well deserved; the reefs there were in superb condition and comprised countless different species of coral and sponge. Most of the reef was very easily accessible at ten meters depth or less and in non-existent currents – it would have been the perfect place to learn to scuba dive!
Unlike the other destinations I’d so far dived in Central America, there were no big animals – no sharks and only baby turtles and rays plus all the fish were pretty small as well. So Bocas del Toro wasn’t necessarily as exciting as the other destinations I’d visited but it was visually stunning.
Whilst using my Paralenz Vaquita and Sealife Micro 3.0 there, I started to realize the limitations of each when it came to shooting tiny subjects with a regular lens. I wanted to capture close ups of coral surfaces as well as the many tiny critters that were abundant at Bocas like the dart crabs and cleaner shrimp.
But without a macro lens, all of these things became blurry if I put the lens closer to them than 30cm – and from a distance greater than that they were too small to properly see!
With that in mind, check out my video of Bocas del Toro below:
Bocas del Toro Diving Squad movie
The Corn Islands
After Bocas, I traveled up north to dive Nicaragua’s Corn Islands; a pair of islands lying within the Caribbean sea some 70km from the Caribbean coast of mainland Nicaragua.
The Corn Islands turned out to be one of the best destinations I dived in all of Central America. Not only were there some truly superb reefs there with absolutely massive elkhorn coral structures; there were also all manner of fish, rays and turtles as well as groups of squid, endemic nurse sharks and on one day a curious pod of bottlenose dolphins even circled around us which I captured with my Paralenz Vaquita in super slowmotion!
We also went on a night dive and it was there that I realized the need for a photography light to shoot in dark spaces!
The Bat Islands and Bull Sharks
After all of that I found myself back in Costa Rica where I embarked on one final mission to dive the Bat Islands; having made trips there in both July and October during 2021 to try and see a bull shark without success I wanted to give it one more go before I was due to fly out of Costa Rica in 5 days.
Bull sharks grow from 8 to 11 ft long and with a bite more powerful than that of a great white shark’s, their preference for living near highly populated areas and a demeanor that is far from shy; they’re actually considered to be the deadliest sharks in the world by some experts.
(Of course no shark is truly that deadly – the number of fatalities inflicted on humans by sharks is extremely low, whereas the number of fatalities inflicted on sharks by humans has driven many shark species to the verge of extinction).
Naturally, I wanted to get as close to a bull shark as possible, which is how I found myself hurtling through a downpour of rain on a tiny speed boat towards the bat islands; little more than two jagged rocks sticking out of the sea. We geared up and dived in then descended as quickly as possible. By not hanging around near the surface and staying in a large group we were told that the bull sharks would probably not eat us.
We waited on the seabed some 25 meters deep but only for a handful of seconds before a hulking silhouette suddenly appeared out of the murky waters and materialized into an adult bull shark just several meters away from my face!
It passed us by without a care in the world. How amazing it was to see; nothing can do justice to the presence and authority with which an apex predator such as this carries itself. It’s one thing to see it on video or as a photo – another entirely to come face to face with it!
There must have been several bull sharks down there; I never saw more than two at the same time, but they kept appearing and disappearing all around us as they were spat out and swallowed up again by the murky waters.
Once again there was a red algae bloom; reducing water visibility significantly so the footage I caught wasn’t the best, but I still felt extremely proud to have finally seen a bull shark. When it comes to capturing nature through a lens you need timing, perseverance and good luck. Some photographers have spent years trying to record subjects as elusive as the Arctic lynx. Check out the footage below:
Overall
It left an awesome taste in my regulator as well as a sense of closure to have finally seen a bull shark after nipping up and down to Playa del Coco over the last year trying to glimpse one.
Of course I’d see many other incredible beings during the previous 12 months as well: dolphins, manta rays, great hammerhead sharks, turtles, nurse sharks, stingrays, whitetip reef sharks, eagle rays, endless fish, lobsters, octopus, nudibranch, crabs and beautiful coral reefs.
I flew out of Costa Rica several days later on the 5th of March 2022: exactly 365 days after I’d flown in. Here’s one final movie I created to showcase some of my favorite shots from my year in Central America:
You may have noticed there’s quite a lot of shots of driving in that final video. That’s because throughout my year in Costa Rica; I’d actually been getting from place to place in Senor. Carro: a 26 year old car I’d bought and fixed up even though it broke down every few months; usually at the least convenient moment possible!
To read the full saga of my time in Central America with further details on each of the places I visited, Senor. Carro, the whacky characters I met along the way and much more you can check it out on my blog here.
Next I made for Ireland and it wasn’t long before I was back to scuba diving – this time in the cold! Ireland is such a beautiful and epic country that I’ve decided to stay for the rest of this year. I’ve got all kinds of new underwater camera gear to try and plenty of Irish diving missions planned! You’ll be hearing about them real soon!!
- Shooting an Underwater Movie on a Red Sea Liveaboard – March 7, 2023
- One Year of Underwater Movies in Central America – September 14, 2022
- Getting a Divemaster Certification during a COVID-19 Lockdown – August 6, 2021