Nicole Vaunt for We Were Wanders in The Yucatan

We got on a plane the beginning of December.  Leaving Philadelphia for a new country, one I had definitely never been to before, and one I wasn't really sure how I was going to photography.  Warm weather climates, sunny beaches, crowded touristy areas...most peoples paradise, but for a photographer that specializes softly lit fine art nudes in nature its sort of a nightmare scenario.

But one thing is certain where there is a will there is a way.  Our plan for the Yuchatan was going to bring us face to face with the majority of my cameras mortal enemies.  Sand and water are notoriously dangerous places to bring gear, but we had a plan.   We were going to take the fight to the elements, and go under water.  Equipped with a DicaPac housing unit I bought a few years ago, I was determined to finally capture some breath taking under water photos.

Our first shoots were rough.  The ocean beat me up, I got sea sick, and after trying to shoot a few photos I was forced to swim in before I threw up.  It was clear that my strategy wasn't going to work.  

What I thought would be a good way to shoot turned out to be sort of a disaster.  I was trying to use live view so I would have a bigger screen to look at under water, and focus before we went under, since the magnification of the water made things so confusing, but it proved to be way harder than I thought it would be.  So we set off for calmer and clearer waters with a new strategy.

At our next location Cenote X Batun I knew that not only would be able to shoot in the water and experiment, we'd have an amazing location above the water.  A large fresh water spot where you can dive into a cave connected to miles and miles of fresh water channels the light in the valley that Batun is located is always very soft and beautiful.  The trees roots fall a long distance from the cliff above, and create the perfect framing for a photo.  We managed to convince the one guard at the Cenote to allow us to shoot after some polite begging.  Once we had that photo in the bag I felt an intense relief.  At least we had one for our troubles.

Before we made our escape from Batun we experimented a little with under water shots in a bikini.  It was there I realized that it is a thousand times easier to shoot with autofocus while looking through the view finder.  I had doubted that autofocus would work that well under water, but the 5d MK II surprised me by focusing like a pro in the clear, but fairly dark waters.  

After that we were off to the races.  We made our way down to the sleep lake town of Bacalar were we shot a few successful photos in the sandy and choppy waters of Lake Bacalar, and then hiked down the road to Cenote Azul were we took some of the most amazing under water photos we may ever do.  While unremarkable from above, below the water Cenote Azul became a treasure trove of amazing under water locations to shoot.  Haunting submerged trees, sea weed, and crystal clear waters we had an amazing time shooting here.  Finally satisfied we had gotten some amazing photos, and completely exhausted from treading and swimming for hours we hiked back to our hostel and called it a day.

All of these photos were shot with a DICAPAC underwater housing unit, Canon 5d MK II, and the canon 17-40mm F4 Lens.  I would try to shoot around F8 or F11 to get decent depth of field, and ISO 200-1600 depending on how dark the water was, and how far I was from the subject.  I found that the more water between the subject and I the more the dark blue started to affect the color and clarity of the image.  It was definitely an intense learning process.