I am excited to introduce my first February Underwater Photographer - Shireen Shipman. I have been following her for awhile now and get excited every time I see her post a new photo! She lives in San Diego and you can find her on instagram at @theshiplady posting about Nudis, Sea Lions, Squid, and all the amazing creatures underwater in California, Norway, Alaska, and more. ❤️ Keep reading to find out more about Shireen and her journey with Underwater Photography!

Hello! My name is Shireen Shipman. I’m a mechanical engineer (previously in shipbuilding and now in aerospace) that loves the ocean. I’m located in San Diego, California which lets me play in or near the ocean all year. I post photos and videos from my underwater adventures on my instagram, @theshiplady. 

When and why did you start diving? 

My dad loved the ocean, so I spent a lot of time in it growing up when we went on vacation. I snorkeled a lot as a kid and got scuba certified in 2018. I started tide pooling last year when a ruptured eardrum kept me out of the water. 

Shireen Shipman scuba diving with her underwater camera setup

How and why did you get started with photography?

Since my dad used to scuba dive, I wanted to take pictures and share the things I saw with him. He sticks to warm water snorkeling now, so this was my way to hear about his past experiences and share my current ones. Once I started sharing pictures on my Instagram and Facebook, I found that a lot of non-divers really enjoyed seeing all the beautiful underwater creatures. I went to a Maritime Academy for college, so I have a lot of ocean people as friends.

I started with a GoPro session, and have upgraded it a few times to the 9. I started with an Olympus TG6 three years ago, and made the huge jump to a Canon EOS R5 in December. The best accessory for tide pooling with the TG6 is their FD-1 flash diffuser.  I have three lenses for the R5 (8-15mm fisheye, 15-35mm and 100mm macro), two Sea and Sea YS-D3 Strobes, my GoPro Hero 9, and a Sola 1200 focus light. 

I love the Hopkins Rose Nudibranch.  They’re tricky to find while scuba diving in San Diego. You’ll normally see them off of the sea cliffs of Point Loma. They are incredibly easy to find tide pooling off of La Jolla. There is an entire crevice packed with moderately sized ones. Further north, in Monterey for example, they’re huge!

I use two iNaturalist guides constantly:

1. Intertidal Nudibranchs of the Monterey Bay Area, California
2. Sea Slugs - Nudibranchs of California

I also have the book Nudibranchs & Sea Slugs of the Eastern Pacific  (available in the I LOVE NUDIS Shop here).

Where is your favorite place to dive or explore the ocean? Also where are a few places at the top of your bucket list?

I absolutely love diving in kelp forests. There is such a diversity of life, and you can find it from the sea floor, up through the kelp canopy. You never know what will surprise you in the kelp. The colors are stunning (green gold kelp, blue water, red kelp crabs and octopuses, purple Spanish shawls, pink strawberry anemones, orange garibaldis, pink sheephead fish) and the light filtering through the kelp canopy is mesmerizing. Top of my bucket list would be Galapagos, Dominica for sperm whales, Argentina for Southern Right Whales, and back to Norway for Orcas and French Polynesia for humpback whales.

Your goals for underwater photography or diving. 

My personal goal for underwater photography is to bring awareness to the amazing beings that live there. It's so fun to see how each fish has a personality, how pinnipeds grow up and play, and the different seasons under the sea. Through sharing what I experience I hope to grow a general awareness of our ocean and hopefully help others make changes in their lives to help save our oceans.  Policy change is needed to protect our oceans, but we need more people to care about them to bring effective policy into place.

Personally, I would like to grow in my photography. I am shooting in manual for the first time ever and am so excited to see where this journey takes me (both geographically and in my photography skills).

Lighting is so important for underwater photography. The TG6 thrives with a bright focus light to help it find the subject and focus. Strobes will help illuminate detail of the subject, but also light up backscatter.

My biggest advice is buy nice or buy twice. I have bought the cheaper version of something so many times only to have to upgrade it later because I was unhappy with the results. I would have spent a lot less money if I just went with the more expensive, higher quality item (lens, strobes, lighting, etc), the first time.

Shooting in RAW and editing in Adobe Lightroom has been a game changer. The tutorials on Go Ask Erin are my favorite for learning underwater photography editing. Her tips for editing have made me a better photographer with lighting and composition considerations.  

Lastly, work on your buoyancy in diving. Adding a camera to your dive is a lot of task loading. Having great buoyancy and diving techniques will go a long way for better compositions with less backscatter.