Welcome to the Heartland
Although it is not generally known for it’s scuba diving, Nebraska offers a variety of interesting and delightful areas for the underwater sport. Ask a local about scuba diving and you’ll get their best answer: “Dive Lake Mac”. We opted for something a little more slow paced, bouncing from lake to lake to discover something just a little more low-key. And we were not disappointed – mostly. Lakes were hit or miss on visibility, temperature, and accessibility.
Underwater Snapshots of Nebraska
For those more adventurous souls who dare to think outside the box, Nebraska can offer a glorious diving experience. With shallow depths, unlimited time and plenty of air, opportunities present themselves to just “be”. We enjoyed watching fish simply existing in their natural habitat. We observed mating behavior for small mouth bass, catfish hunting in the sand, observed snail behavior, and sat for a few minutes mesmerized by the patterns of silt floating on the thermoclines.
The Underwater Photography Challenges
In ideal circumstances, a balanced camera system is ideal. However, when traveling as a scuba diving gypsy, the simplest form of forgetfulness can lead to the need to adapt and overcome. In this case, the distraction of in-flight snacks circumvented the natural process of ensuring the sync cords, batteries and such were brought with the strobes. Strobes balanced the system. Without them, the balance was non-existent. C’est la vie – natural light photography chose me.
Working with dry gloves, in a dry suit, the shallow water proved to be a bit of a challenge with an imbalanced camera system. The three-plus pounds of negative weight and a 5+ diopter macro lens in front of an in-flight-snack-distracted diver can lead to unprecedented buoyancy challenges. However, the underwater realm seldom disappoints in opportunities to “try anyway”.
Below are some underwater photographs from of our “Dive Nebraska” odyssey.
