DIVER_V38_i8 Giant Kelp Gatefold

The longest-established scuba diving magazine in North America
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Volume 38 Number 8
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Inside:
DIVE traininG
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Are we doing a good job?
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Rise of the
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Are they a SCUBA game changer?
Plus:
California’s GIANT Kelp / Dome Ports
Korea’s Sea Women / Dive Comic Books
Will the new
Hollis Gear
Explorer
turn the tide?
GIANT kelp
Big picture expert Jim Hellemn gives new meaning to the descriptive ‘giant’ kelp with
imaging techniques that have magically transported California’s aquatic forests, life size,
to a glass wall 125 feet in length at the Aquarium of the Pacific at Long Beach
Photographs © 2013 Jim Hellemn – blueoceanart.com
C
alifornia’s kelp
forests are a
marine wonderland
offering underwater
photographers and
videographers infinite imaging
possibilities. It’s hard not to be
enchanted by these lush near
shore ecosystems that are so
accessible, shallow, sun-shot,
alive with colour and critters, all
in visibility that often affords an
unforgettable glimpse of their
extraordinary grandeur.
But making memorable images
of such breathtaking vistas is a
challenge. The human eye is pretty
amazing in its ability to take in the
breadth and depth of a scene that
is… well, that’s oceanic in scale;
and while imaging technology today
32
continues to amaze, it doesn’t
compare. To abuse the lyrics of an
old jazz tune: ‘jeepers, creepers,
how ‘bout them peepers’. Even
top of the line cameras, and the
underwater housings in which they
must be sealed, are limited in their
abilities to record with fidelity the
grand sweep and cathedral-like rise
of this majestic marine flora, and
even if they weren’t, there remain
limitations with other compositional
considerations such as depth of
field and image resolution.
All of which is not to say getting
the shot is impossible. Our
special double gatefold image of
a San Clemente, California, kelp
forest is proof to the contrary.
These images have been made
with a little help from computer
The dramatic
kelp forest wall
in the new gift
shop at the
Aquarium of
the Pacific in
Long Beach,
California
software but that’s a huge
oversimplification. There’s much
more to it than that and if you read
about underwater photographer
Jim Hellemn and his journey
towards mastery of the big picture,
you’ll understand. A year ago
DIVER (Volume 37 Number 8 and
at divermag.com) told Jim’s story,
focused on his early projects
photographing Little Cayman’s
Bloody Bay Wall and the reefs
around all three Cayman islands.
Since then Jim has kept himself
busy in his own backyard.
He’s been diving California’s
kelp forests for years and knows
them well so when the expanding
Aquarium of the Pacific at Long
Beach began sourcing kelp
photography for the glass wall
of a new building, Jim got in
touch by way of his friend and
fellow shooter, Phillip Colla,
whose images had caught their
eye, and who understood that
the resolution and proportion of
the images they needed, were
way beyond what a conventional
underwater image could deliver.
But, he told them, he knew a guy
who just might be able to help.
Giant Game Plan
As Jim recounts the story, he and
Aquarium executives discussed a
game plan based on his assurance
that he “was pretty sure he could
do the job.” The Aquarium wasn’t
entirely convinced and had a
back-up plan to use vector-based
artwork, but agreed to fund a
scouting trip, which Jim made out
of San Diego to San Clemente and
Catalina islands aboard the MV
Horizon, in July of 2012. After three
days of diving he’d come up with
a strategy to shoot the Aquarium
image. So he signed a contract
with them and wasted little time
returning to the kelp forests in
a series of trips that took him to
almost all of California’s Channel
Islands that fall. With the help of
sponsors, Ikelite and DUI drysuits,
he’d shot all the images by the
end of October. By mid November
post-processing was complete and
by month’s end image positioning
on the windows was determined,
the artwork finalized and the image
delivered to GlasPro, the decorative
glass fabricator for the project.
That tidy little summary nicely
glosses over the imaging obstacles
he faced. Shooting a series of some
1,200 composite images, later to
be Photoshopped into a single,
seamless, perfect-to-the-criticaleye image is no mean feat. “The
first challenge was what to use as a
reference. The kelp forest I wanted
to shoot is big with lots of depth of
field over rugged, uneven terrain,”
Jim told DIVER. “Another challenge
was that everything was moving
and looked different from moment
to moment.” But after years of
shooting big pictures his skills were
well practiced and the approach
became apparent soon enough.
It involved finding the right
location where he could use a line
of kelp plants in the foreground
as the reference point. “I shot the
foreground elements by getting
as close as possible with the right
focal length to capture a vertical
array of horizontal images that
overlapped at least 60 percent,”
he said. Correct camera attitude
was critical on each frame. “The
trick was to have the right kind of
background area and watch all the
background elements at the same
time, ensuring they were straight
from frame to frame.” Even slight
changes in camera angle created
problems. “It was touchy and took
a lot of practice and bracketing,”
he said.
With the front edge plants on
the same plane he was able to
sketch out the scene using the
relative position of each plant, and
then shoot each one individually
using the vertical overlap process
previously mentioned. These
became the foreground layer.
The background layer was
photographed from a viewpoint
just beyond the foreground
plants, using available light. This
way several individual mosaics
covered the full span of the image
background. The mid field areas
were shot using fill light from a
greater distance and shot in several
square matrices of horizontal
images. All the foreground, midground and background images
were later blended into one massive
master composite.
When installed, the Aquarium’s
spectacular wall comprised 26
laminated glass panels featuring
the kelp forest composite
extending some 125 feet
(38m) at almost 13 feet (4m)
high. To cover approximately
1,600 square feet (149 square
metres) a photographic image
was reproduced 1,500 inches
(3,810cm) by 160 inches (406cm)
at 100 pixels per inch, making it
Photo: Jason Belport
Life Size Pictures
Jim Hellemn
with his big
picture camera
rig on a previous
shoot in the
Cayman Islands
Below: Building
construction
began July 2012,
the kelp forest
glass installation
was complete
by mid February
2013 and the
new building
opened in May
150,000 by 16,000 pixels, that
is a picture of 2,400 megapixels
or 2.4 gigapixels. Jim used a
36-megapixel camera to shoot the
more than 1,200 photos stitched
together in Photoshop™.
Glass Magazine judged the
Aquarium’s kelp forest mural the
most innovative decorative glass
project for a commercial interior
in 2013. “Photo imaging on glass
is tough to do really well,” said
judge Rob Botman, who is general
manager of Glassopolis in the U.S.
“It’s difficult to get the resolution
you need in photos. In this case,
the quality of the art and strong
conceptual design made the whole
project exceptional.”
The Aquarium’s kelp forest wall
of glass was installed earlier this
year as a breathtaking feature of
its new gift shop, which opened
in May. If your family vacation
to California this winter does
not include diving, a visit to the
Aquarium of the Pacific at Long
Beach will do the trick, and be sure
to visit the gift shop!
Editor
Divemaster and SSI instructor
Viki Kaiser explores a kelp
forest off San Clemente Island
in California’s Channel Islands.
She was assistant and safety
diver on the production shoot
Photographs © 2013 Jim Hellemn
www.blueoceanart.com