Dolphins are regarded as some of the most playful creatures in the ocean – just ask diver, conservation storyteller and co-founder of SeaLegacy, Cristina Mittermeier. “As a diver, when you get in the water dolphins might come and buzz you around and take a look at you,” she explains. “But if you don’t swim as fast as they do, they get easily bored, they will leave.” Being that it’s so difficult to keep up with them, capturing a good photo of dolphins underwater is a major challenge. In this video, watch as Mittermeier shares the new solution she and co-founder Paul Nicklen have come up with to help them get the elusive shots of dolphins they’ve been observing.

The solution? Underwater scooters. While the scooters don’t jet them around at super speed, they are fast enough to allow them to keep up with the dolphins while still being able to maneuver their cameras. “All of a sudden, they’re curious. They want to play,” says Mittermeier. “Now I have my camera and I’m able to just point it and shoot at the eye of the dolphin that’s swimming right next to me.”

While Mittermeier and Nicklen are using the underwater scooters, they are also snorkeling instead of scuba diving with a tank. They have to navigate with the scooter to the surface to get a breath of air before diving back down. It turns into a delicate dance of timing, seeing how long the air in their lungs would carry them and how deep they could go while still being close enough to the dolphins.

Mittermeier was equipped with her Sony Alpha 1 and Sony 12-24mm f/2.8 G Master to photograph the fast creatures. “In order to get the shots, I have to have a pretty fast shutter speed,” she explains. “I’m shooting without any strobes and I’m relying only on ambient light. And most importantly, you still have to be thinking about f/8 and making a composition, and snapping a beautiful shot. There’s so much that you have to be thinking about.”

Mittermeier explains that because the dolphins were swimming so close to her, the hardest part was trying to get the entire pod in frame. “So for me, the creative part was just getting pieces of dolphins in and out of the frame to make a nice composition. What a great thing to feel like you’re part of a dolphin pod for just a minute. The most extraordinary thing I’ve ever photographed in my life.”

See more videos like this one on the Alpha Universe YouTube Channel.