Emily’s top tips

1 Protect your camera

There are many brands out there offering underwater housings and the prices can vary massively. Depending on your budget, look for something secure and safe and that you trust taking your camera out into the ocean with! For all these images here, I used a SeaFrogs Underwater Housing for my Fujifilm X-T3 and 60mm macro lens. If you want to experiment before investing too much money, there are plenty of brands offering underwater cameras, or even a GoPro. I’ve got plenty of lovely shots using my GoPro and it’s a lot of fun!

2 Get creative

Think outside the box and step away from the confines of how you might create seascape imagery on land. Get low, as close to the water as you can, and try photographing at this level and see the interesting perspective this brings. Use a macro lens so you can photograph the ripples up-close on the surface of the water. I tend to fire off a few images to get a feel for things and often I am surprised by what I see; that fleeting moment of a ripple as it passes by, the sun rising above the horizon and out of the water. The lower you are, the more interesting it gets.

3 Know the ocean

Keep safe by checking apps like Magic Seaweed to check the conditions and the swell expected for that day. Observe the ocean before you head out, see what it is doing. Is it an incoming or outgoing tide? Head out in conditions you feel safe and don’t go out of your depth. I like to head out in calm, gentle waters to focus on the smaller details. If it’s rough, I’ll head out and shoot the surf, but if I don’t feel confident, I won’t go out of my depth to get nearer to the action if I don’t feel it’s safe.