Luke Coley (@lukecoley) is a professional underwater photographer and videographer born in the UK and now based in Mexico. He’s been passionate about photography since he was 16 and says his main focus is underwater photography. He captures everything from marine animals to dive competitions with his Sony Alpha 1. We sat down with Coley to learn more about the story behind this shoot at a cenote in Mexico’s Riviera Maya. Keep reading as he shares the entire experience in his own words below.

Product Preview – In This Article You’ll Find:
–Sony Alpha 1
–Sony 16-35mm f/4

Photo by Luke Coley. Sony Alpha 1. Sony 16-35mm f/4. 1/30-sec., f/4, ISO 4000

An Unbeatable Combo For Underwater Photography

I had been living and working in Mexico’s Riviera Maya for several years, where we are blessed with a huge variety of underwater shooting opportunities. My attention has been primarily captured by the area’s cenotes – flooded sink holes that often lead to vast cave systems, and whose perfect water clarity allows for incredible light effects.

I had started to hear rumblings of a cenote I had never been too, that was supposed to be something of a mix of my two favorite cenotes to photograph. My partner Sarah and I made a plan to go check it out. We procured the location from a friend and set a date to go, when the forecast called for completely blue skies to maximize time with the light beam once underwater.  We loaded up our scuba cylinders, cave diving equipment, dive lights and my Sony Alpha 1 with my Sony 16-35mm f/4 lens in an underwater Nauticam housing and set off.

I find the Sony Alpha 1 unbeatable for wildlife and free dive photography. The speed of the animals and the athletes are easily managed with the high burst rates and 50 mega pixels gives a lot of flexibility in the edit. Paired with the Sony 16-35mm f/4, I can achieve great focal range for wider and tighter shots without having to change lenses in my Nauticam underwater camera housing.

The journey was around two hours driving, from highway to jungle roads, passing through tiny villages to eventually a dirt track. We parked as the road ended and were greeted by the caretakers of the land. We asked about the cenote and they led us on foot down a path through the jungle, alive with sounds of birds and buzzing of insects. For 300 meters we walked until eventually the trees cleared and we came upon the opening, dense with tree roots surrounding the edge which lead down to the water 3 meters below. Fortunately for us the cenote already had rickety wooden stairs down to the water, making the entry and exit relatively easy. The water was crystal clear with the sun starting to rise to the angle needed for it to reach the water, we could witness the light beam taking shape before our eyes. The excitement was starting to build. We were aiming to get in the water just before midday, so still had time to get ready.

Staying Safe With A Detailed Dive Plan

We had a leaner enriched air Nitrox mix of 28% in our tanks, allowing us to go to a maximum depth of 40 meters without risk of oxygen toxicity and extending our bottom longer than if we were to dive with normal air. This is is to allow us to go check out artifacts we had heard about that sat at a depth of 35 meters. We would be donning two tanks each in a sidemount configuration, giving us complete redundancy if one side has any failure we have a complete back-up breathing system to exit the cavern safely. This also would give us the possibility to safely be further away from each other whilst underwater to compose our images.

Photo by Luke Coley. Sony Alpha 1. Sony 16-35mm f/4. 1/40-sec., f/4, ISO 4000

For any shoot underwater our communication methods must be clear and understood by all parties. We therefore went over a detailed briefing on our light and hand signals. We make a dive plan to the best of our abilities, limited by never having dived in the location before. It is easy to get carried away when shooting in this environment, so planning the dive and then diving your plan is critically important for our safety.

Once we are briefed and all equipment is double checked, we once again do the 300 meter walk this time carrying tanks and in our wetsuits in the summer Mexican sun. Once at the entrance to the cenote I lowered our tanks down to Sarah in the water level on a rope one by one. Once we were both in and had cooled down, we secured our tanks to our harnesses, went through final checks, and finally descended into the submerged Mayan underworld awaiting us below. The crystal clear water was engulfed by the midday sun, we had perfect timing. As I descend I have one eye on my surroundings and gauges, and the other scans for points of interest and how the light is hitting. 

Working An Underwater Scene

We descended to our deepest point initially to locate the various artifacts and then slowly begin to ascend to shallower depths, so we have more bottom time to create. We went to work trying to capture one unique photo that portrays the amplitude of the environment and awe-inspiring feeling that surges through us as we take it all in. A massive stalactite hangs down to 15 meters underwater down under one lip of the cavern. Impressive formations such as this one would have been formed when the cave was dry, and I definitely needed to find a composition that included it in my image.

I am a firm believer in working a scene, so I took advantage of the increased bottom time given by the Nitrox at shallower depths, and because we had two tanks each, we had time to find angles. I started to see the the image I wanted to create a little clearer in mind. Because of the contrast of the dark cavern and the bright sunlight, I used slow shutter speeds (1/30) and we both have to be incredibly still, maintaining perfect neutral buoyancy to make sure the images are sharp. I wanted to capture a wider image, so I swam myself back in the corner of the cavern and Sarah positioned her body and light in front of the massive natural light beam to create a silhouette.

I directed her using my own focused dive light to shift positions and change the angle of her light slightly. She kept her buoyancy perfectly neutral, whilst also not exhaling too much to avoid too many bubbles in the frame. After I was happy with what we got for the wider image, we shifted over towards to stalactite. With a couple slight adjustments highlighting the giant formation we achieved the second image, slightly shallower than the first as we were winding down the dive. Eventually our tanks reach the pressure we had agreed to end the dive on, and we surfaced with big smiles excited to review the footage from the day.

See more of Luke Coley’s work on Instagram @lukecoley.