The phenomenon we are talking about happens when you shoot photographs of the sea bottom through waves. The wave acts as a magnifying glass which breaks the light and creates structural and colouristic distortions of the sea bottom. In optimum conditions, you get special effects in the photographs which make them resemble abstract works of art. That is why we called this way of taking photos “Painting with the sea”. What makes capturing such pictures especially challenging is the result which is to a great extent unpredictable. The moment of picturesqueness captured in the photos is not seen as such on the spot. This has to do with the sluggishness of the eye on the one hand, and the vivid activity of the sea surface on the other. It is thanks to the constant water activity that we obtain a great diversity of results when consecutively taking photographs on the same spot.

Since we have no expert explanation for this phenomenon, we can only mention some of the conclusions we have drawn after shooting several thousand sea abstractions.

The photo sessions are more fruitful if:
– the day is light and clear
– the sun is high in the sky
– the bottom is picturesque
– the depth of the water is approximately 50 centimetres
– the angle of shooting is about 90 degrees to the surface
– the sea is moderately wavy.

Shooting photographs in this way has four basic phases:
a) recognising suitable atmospheric and maritime conditions (the sun, the wind, the waves, the cleanliness and the depth of the sea)
b) finding an interesting segment of the sea bottom
c) taking photos (several shots for each motif)
d) browsing through the recorded material on the computer and selecting the most rewarding photographs.

This phenomenon is characterised by the fact that in none of the first three phases do we have full control of the process. As a result, there is a very small number of photos we consider gratifying in comparison to the great number of shots taken. This is what makes the whole process challenging.

We are aware that the results do not belong to so-called art photography. In fact, our photos represent a photographed natural phenomenon or a sea abstraction captured in a fraction of a moment which is invisible to the naked eye. All this makes these photographs even more fascinating.