Snorkeling

I made this photograph with a Pentax K-5 II and the humble SMC Pentax 18-55, a kit lens that, while often underestimated, has served me well in situations where flexibility is more important than technical perfection.

Framing was a game of patience here. The snorkeller moved slowly into my line of sight, framed naturally by the foreground rocks, which form a rough vignette and create a sense of peeking into a private scene. This kind of natural framing can be both a gift and a curse: while it gives depth and directs the eye, it also forces me to deal with tricky metering. In this case, I exposed for the mid-tones of the sea, letting the rocks fall into deeper shadow — a deliberate choice to keep the water’s blues rich without blowing out the highlights.

Technically, the image holds up well for the conditions. The Pentax’s dynamic range handled the contrast between shaded rocks and sunlit water without collapsing into clipped highlights or crushed blacks. The kit lens is not razor-sharp at the edges, and that softness is visible in the rocks closest to the frame’s borders. But here, it works in my favour, drawing more attention to the snorkeller and those bright yellow fins slicing the turquoise water.

It’s a quiet image — no drama, no staged heroics — just a fleeting human trace in an otherwise endless seascape. And sometimes, that simplicity is all a photograph needs.