Rock pooling with a GoPro
Recently, I drove down to Wembury Beach for a location scout and to explore the rockpools and I must say I was not disappointed! Wembury along with being a truly BEAUTIFUL beach, was also home to some great rockpools and wildlife habitats. After navigating through the new housing estate that had recently been developed (thankyou Satnav for that) I made it to the carpark and was greeted by a beautiful little beach spot. This trip, also proofed to be the perfect opportunity to test out my Go Pro underwater- my previous underwater attempts involved the kitchen sink and a murky pond so a bunch of rockpools was an opportunity I could not miss!
The Idea:
So, my theory behind Rock pooling with the Go Pro was pretty basic: Look around the rockpools see if I could spot anything interesting from the surface before dipping the Go-Pro into the pool and swishing it around a bit whilst recording. In theory I figured this would mean anything inside the pool would be captured on my video which I could later use to take screen grabs of my favourite shots. In practice though this was a little harder to execute then I first imagined…
A few challenges:
The first challenge I faced using the Go-Pro was the practical side of it, I had chosen to wear my walking boots that day figuring that I would be less likely to slip all over the rocks and they would keep my feet warm; however, this meant I struggled to get close enough to the edge of the rockpools without getting my shoes wet and so I had less reach when it came to holding the GoPro. Secondly, at the time of filming I had my Go-Pro mounted onto the tripod attachment which although gave me a good handle to hold it by, didn’t give me much reach to go deeper into the rockpools. Next time I definitely think I need a longer mount (maybe the selfie stick one?) and my water shoes!
Furthermore, and I’m going to chalk this up to it being my first time trying the Go-pro underwater, but all my filming was WAY too fast, meaning none of the footage had longer then a few brief seconds of focus before I moved it around. This meant that the photos I later screen grabbed weren’t as good as I think they could have been. Finally, and this isn’t necessarily anything to do with me or my Go-Pro but I was kinda hoping I’d see more marine life in the rockpools (crabs, starfish etc.) however, there was no sign in any of my footage, I don’t know if these species are effected by time of year, weather, the tide or if I was just looking in the wrong rockpools but next time I plan to do some more research on the particular species I want to look for not just the location before heading out!
The Results:
So even though the footage was not as good as I’d necessarily hoped I was still very happy with the results. This was my first time using the Go-Pro in this manner and I’ve got to say along with really enjoying the whole process and experiment, I do quite like some of the photos. I’m sure next time I will take better ones but for now I’m happy with what I got!
If you enjoyed this post, you can watch the vlog from the same trip here:
