Lauren Bennett of the Paradiso Girls Collaborates in an Underwater Shoot with Los Angeles Fashion Photographer James Hickey

It certainly wasn’t the first time I had models in a pool, it was just the first time I brought the camera underwater. To get it done I rigged a Canon 5D Mark II in an underwater housing and several Broncolor power packs to near full to give it that night effect when competing with the sun. The difficult part is waiting for so much wattage to recycle when your subject is holding their breath. Lauren was pretty much a sport about the whole thing even though the pool was very cold.

I secured the lighting to a fence a safe distance from the water to keep things ultra safe.  If I was closer I could have used less light, but I decided to keep it safe, which really slowed things down. Once we got the rhythm of the images down they started to get pretty consistent.  It seemed hard to get a good facial expression underwater, so we had to work a bit to figure it out.

Model: Lauren Bennett (of The Paradiso Girls)
Photography: James Hickey
Stylist: Cara Maria
Tech: Lana Penrose