Tom Doeppner's Underwater Photos

I got started in underwater photography in 1986, when I acquired a Nikonos V system. This is a viewfinder, non-SLR camera which is great for wide-angle photography, but not for "fish portraits" and other close-up work. I started using a housed camera in 1992: a Nikon 8008s in a Tussey housing. I replaced this in 1997 with a Nikon F4 in a Nexus housing and used Ikelite Substrobe 150 and Substrobe 200 strobes. In January 2005 I switched to digital and to a Nikon D70 in a Nexus housing. In the summer of 2006 I replaced the D70 with a Nikon D2x in a Seacam housing. I replaced the strobes with Ikelite DS125's. I replaced the D2x with a Nikon D800 in January 2014, again with a Seacam housing. In July 2016 I replaced the strobes with Ikelite DS160's. All of my photos shown here were taken with the housed cameras, mostly with either a 60mm macro lens or a 105mm macro lens. In some of those shot with the latter I've used a +2 wet diopter that allows me to get closer to the subjects. In January 2010 I acquired a SubSee +10 diopter from ReefNet, which allows me to get even closer. A few photos were taken with a 20mm lens and some with a 35mm lens. Starting in July 2014, the wide-angle photos are taken with a 16-35mm zoom lens. Almost all the photos shot on film were with Fuji Velvia.

If you find any errors in my identification of the subjects, please let me know! Contact me at twd@cs.brown.edu.

The photographs are organized by location: