Who we are?
We are a group that aims to promote & collect all the beauties of water and all that surrounds it (aquatic life, aquatic plants, water & underwater scapes, etc).

Here will be included featured interviews, photographs, tips, techniques, tutorials, linked documentaries etc.


Rules:

Everyone can suggest a fave.

Only members can contribute and may submit only 1 deviation per week (therefore choose your submissions wisely).

To promote the group, you may help by adding the group's icon to your main page journal by copy & paste the following " :icon#Aquaview: " without the "#" sign between icon and Aquaview.

The group reserves the right to accept or decline the submissions based on their quality and visual impact (either to the gallery or faves folder).

If your deviation is declined, please do not resubmit it, and submit others.

Usually if your submission is declined we'll leave a comment why we did so, but if this doesn't happen you may request an explanation (by clicking on the 'No Comments' link on your declined submission from the correspondence box).

Rules can be modified at any time.
(if that happens, this entry will be updated)


Gallery specifications:

The group will be accepting only high quality photos, but considering the fact that in underwater photography it may be hard to obtain sometimes high quality photos, we will be accepting and photos with a lower quality, but they must contain an impressive visual impact.

You may submit only to the 'Pending photos' folder. If your submission will be accepted, it will be moved by the moderators to the corresponding folder of your submission (this way there will be no errors involved in choosing the right category by the contributors).

In the Featured folder will be published only the best works submitted in the group.

In the 'People', 'Rural and Urban' and animals folders: 'Invertebrates', 'Fishes', 'Amphibians and Reptiles', 'Birds' and 'Mammals' will be accepted only aquatic life related photos (within oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, ponds, etc).

In folder under the name "Documentary" where we don't put much accent on art, but on scientific measures.

Also there is a folder under the name 'If water didn't existed' where yo may submit tragedies caused by the disappearance of water.

Beside photography, we also have 2 folders for Traditional and Digital Art water related deviations.

Almost every photographer is thrilled when taking his or her first pictures under water, whether in a swimming pool or the ocean’s depths. The excitement comes not only from the very idea of capturing an underwater scene on film or on digital cameras, but also from being in a completely different environment, another world, it seems.

You don't have to relearn basic photography, the fundamentals of photography remain the same wherever you are taking pictures, but in the medium where light travels through water, not air, special techniques and equipment are needed in order to capture good images.

If the difficulties encountered in shooting underwater had to be summed up in one word, perhaps the best word would be “limitations.” Communication and travel below the surface are limited. Natural light and visibility are limited. Equipment selection is limited. Even time is limited, since we are air-breathing creatures and must at some point come to the surface.

The secret to success in underwater photography occurs in how well we overcome these limitations. The information, hints and tips provided in this section of photographytips.com will help to guide you in the right direction.

The most important advice you can receive, however, has little to do with photography per se, and everything to do with your safety. A watery environment can be a dangerous environment, even if it is a back yard pool. No photograph is worth any risk to your life and safety. Depending on the type ofunderwater photography you wish to pursue, you must first acquire appropriate specialized knowledge and training, and receive certification from qualified instructors. This applies to every aspect of underwater activity, from basic swimming skills to advanced deep-sea diving techniques. You must rigorously train yourself to keep techniques of survival uppermost in your mind when taking underwater pictures, since it is possible to become so engrossed that you may tend to overlook basic safety procedures. Learn and apply all safeguards all the time, and if you have any uncertainty about whether what you are doing or thinking of doing may be risky, then consider it risky and don’t do it.

The rewards of underwater photography can be great. Since it is a specialized area that relatively few photographers attempt, the opportunities for new and different images are many. People will usually look forward with eagerness to seeing your underwater pictures, since there is a novelty aspect to them and because we are all fascinated by images from places we seldom see in person.

Words selected from photographytips.com

And here is a complete index to Underwater Photography
(all you need to know from A - Z): [link]