In our influencer-filled environment now, it is popular to see them posing in cafés and other new, popular Instagrammable places. Usually, they do not even will need a skilled photographer for some decent snaps of them at these places.

Having said that, if you had been to see a photo of an influencer like the a single down below, not just any Insta-boyfriend or mum or father is likely to lower it. You’d will need a skilled photographer, and one particular who’s able to do underwater photography to boot.

A pose that usually takes additional than a “1, 2, 3, smile!” / Graphic Credit rating: Cheah Kim Hup

This is in which another person like Cheah Kim Hup would occur in.

A journey from land to sea

Cheah’s vocation in underwater pictures essentially started on land, in which he was a character manual dependent in Penang and Langkawi rainforests in 2014.

“I always beloved observing ocean documentaries, and did sign up for a few conservation routines,” Cheah shared with Vulcan Article. Some of these conservation ordeals integrated working with sea turtles, dolphins, dusky leaf monkeys, and a lot more.  

A single point led to a further, and soon enough, he applied for a scuba diving licence in 2017. His like for the underwater entire world only grew from there, so considerably so that he give up his career and went to Sabah in early 2018 and joined the Sipadan Kapalai Dive Vacation resort to do underwater videography for their resort company. 

Now, it is no shock that the equipment for underwater videography is not low-cost. Cheah unveiled that the entire DSLR gear with underwater housing costs much more than RM40K. 

Dictionary Time: Underwater housing is a camera circumstance for your well-liked topside camera but a person that lets full manage of the camera when diving, is water-resistant and stress-evidence, and in many scenarios as ergonomic as working with your camera without the need of it. 

Housing Camera

Fortuitously, the vacation resort lined the fees for the equipment and supplied him with underwater videography teaching, which took about 3 months before he could just take on consumers for them. 

Not your typical camerawork / Impression Credit rating: Cheah Kim Hup

Clientele have burdens to bear for a shoot also

The scuba diving gear alone weighs all around 15kg to 20kg, which is definitely significant for initially-timers who make up the vast majority of his purchasers. 

Cheah himself has to have an additional 5kg to 10kg of more body weight with him thanks to the digital camera devices, and he also in some cases helps attendees who are not utilized to the body weight of their have scuba equipment. 

How a great deal added devices he has to carry relies upon on the situation of the dive as very well. When there is terrible weather, bad visibility, or if he’s likely for a night time dive or has to go deeper into the h2o, he’ll need to have to connect additional lights to his devices to guarantee a clearer shoot.

For just about every dive, Cheah will in fact have an teacher appear together with him and the shoppers if they are to start with-timers, but if the customers by themselves are licenced divers, a buddy procedure can be applied (when far more than just one licenced consumer is all around).

For licenced divers, he just has to instruct them on posing, which involves positioning their scuba fins, managing their buoyancy, and so on. But for newcomers, it’s a entire other tale. 

The several ways he’s taught his shoppers how to pose underwater / Graphic Credit score: Cheah Kim Hup

Dealing with nervous clients

“Beginners effortlessly worry and their bodies get rigid mainly because they’re frightened of drinking water. When that transpires, we usually guide them to breathe slowly but surely and support practice some primary protection competencies just before diving deeper,” he defined. 

“I’ll also consider to distract them from their dread by encouraging them to emphasis on the elegance of their underwater environment.”

There are occasions wherever Cheah actually has to relieve their nervousness and consistently apply these basic safety capabilities with consumers for several hours, simply because of how frightened to dive some of them had been. 

At times, the shoppers conclusion up providing up diving entirely, and in these circumstances, Cheah would encourage them to go after a snorkeling shoot instead. 

Having a crack from taking pictures people the moment in a although / Graphic Credit rating: Cheah Kim Hup

Far more customers from China than regionally

Even while Cheah operates with neighborhood influencers, he’s much more preferred between Chinese visitors and influencers since he actively posts on Douyin (Chinese TikTok, for people who aren’t familiar).

“I have 80.4K followers on my Douyin, and which is in fact how these travelers and influencers from China got to know me and approached me to work with them for their underwater shoots for the duration of their trips,” he shared. 

“Usually before we go underwater, I’ll discuss with them what sort of angles they like and don’t like and try my very best to satisfy their anticipations throughout the dive. But at the stop of the day, the output truly relies upon on their actions and pose which, with observe, gets nearer to what they want.”

Moreover influencers, Cheah has also collaborated with big-name brands like WeChat China, PADI China, Insta360 China, and even Douyin China them selves. These huge-brand collaborations generally involve underwater item reviews, like he did for the Sublue Underwater Scooter and the Insta360 digicam.

A pool of new designs for him / Picture Credit rating: Cheah Kim Hup

Normally, the provider is a shoot with 2 dives, and if you’re doing the job with him at the vacation resort, you’re charged RM900 for 1 to 2 pax, and RM250 per person if it’s additional than 4 pax. But if you operate with him outdoors of the vacation resort, it’s about RM600 to RM1,000 for 1 to 2 pax, relying on the place. Cheah shared with Vulcan Article that he’s worked with in excess of 500 clientele previously because he begun. 

But of training course, the pandemic has improved matters for him. Cheah is not in a position to choose on any client operate because the tourism marketplace has been hit badly and the the vast majority of his Chinese consumers are now absent.

As a result, he’s again on land in his hometown, Sungai Petani, Kedah, working as a freelance videographer. He’s using this crack from his underwater vocation to concentration on upskilling in solution and corporate shoots, but is definitely seeking forward to obtaining back in the drinking water when it’s safer.

  • You can study far more about Cheah Kim Hup in this article.
  • You can read through far more about much more photographers we have protected in this article.

Featured Image Credit score: Cheah Kim Hup 

By Harmony