How Chat | In The Bath With Mikko
By Mikko Paasi
The Underbathwater Photographer of the Year competition was conceived by Fourth Element as a way of creatively keeping camera rigs wet during the pandemic lockdowns. Returning for its second edition in 2021, the winning images prove that this has not just been a fun exercise, but one which has given birth to some truly astounding photographic feats, even in a bath!
Mikko Paasi won the inaugural contest and repeated the trick again this time around, winning the Underbathwater Photographer of the year Professional category, we caught up with him to find out just how he captured such a stunning moment in the tub.
It turns out Aquaman is real, and he’s Finnish.
Shooter | Mikko Paasi
As well as his admirable accomplishments in the bath, Mikko has built up a seriously impressive resume.
A dive pro since 1998, he founded Koh Tao Divers, the first dive school in the area, and runs it to this day, with the addition now of a sister operation in Malta.
A technical CCR instructor, his expertise in the underwater world’s most hostile environments has seen him map and discover WWII wrecks in the South China Sea. His particular set of skills were called upon in the Thai Cave Rescue, where he was a key member of the team that saved 13 lives and captured the world’s attention.
He combines dive and photographic expertise as a cameraman on a number of European documentaries and as a project leader in Bottomline Projects expeditions in South East Asia.
Find him at www.mikkopaasi.com and on Instagram
Dive and learn from him at Koh Tao Divers.
Part 1 | Conception
Mikko Paasi: I was struggling trying to fix my brain into the creative gear, but I knew all along that there is so many possibilities to use the bath tub that when it comes, it will be spectacular. Then on the second day of quarantine it hit me and I could see the image in the back of my brain.
By that time, I already knew pretty much what tools I had and what I would need to finish the job. The inspiration came from a fellow finnish explorer Patrick Dagerman, who recently gave my daughter a book about a polar bear called Patrick who lives in Greenland. The book was mostly written and photographed by Patrick Dagerman himself and that inspired me with the theme.
The boat in the image is inspired by RV Yoldia, a small but mighty dive exploration vessel captained by Immi Wallin, who runs SubZone in Finland. She is a passionate wreck hunter and my certifying instructor trainer back in 1998.
RV Yoldia in action, the inspiration for the boat in Mikko’s shot.
A video from a dive exploration aboard RV Yoldia.
Part 2 | Getting the Shot
Behind the scenes video by Mikko’s talented wife, Krista Paasi.
Equipment: Olympus OM-D 5 mark 2 with Zuiko 8mm f1.8 fish eye Pro. Nauticam housing with 4’33 acrylic dome and Big Blue VTL 8000 light.
Location: Jakarta hotel room (during self isolation).
Time: The vision came around noon and quite fast we were in the full swing of things and by sunset we were done. We actually did 3 different sessions, experimenting with different lighting and targets, but the challenge was that the clay was dissolving and the watercolours fading away quite fast.
Other gear: The icebergs were created using the hotels bathrobes, towels, face masks and my daughter’s nappies. The boat, which is a replica of Immi Wallins’ RV Yoldia, and the polar bear was made from, once again, my daughter’s playdough that she happened to have with her. A couple of cocktail sticks and watercolouring paint to finish the details. We even broke a metal bar out of one of the hotels hangers to manoeuvre the boat, hope they don’t notice it!
Help: This was a full-on team job with the whole family, my wife Krista, our daughter Isla and me. Isla delivered most of the equipment needed to create the objects and she was also decorating the boat with me and supervising the quality. Krista was the captain for the RV Yoldia and filming the behind the scenes video while I pushed the shutter button. Thanks also to the hotel staff who had to come and wipe off all the water and the soaked bath ropes from the bathroom after the shoot.
Settings: f/7.1, 1/100, ISO 500
I think I tried a wider aperture to try to create some bokeh at the beginning but that didn’t work well so I went back to basics and, to be honest, I was so concentrated on the moving parts and the composition of the image that I didn’t do much more exploration on the settings.
All hands on deck for this shot - a full family endeavour!
The Story
I pretty much the inverted image in my mind but I didn't believe it would come out so good. The biggest challenges were in the composition, since you had to constantly think about everything upside-down and in mirror effect. For example, is the floating bear looking into the centre from the left or right side of the pic after it will be inverted and turned upside down?
Also, trying to keep the nappy iceberg tidy and from floating away from its spot while manoeuvring the boat, and trying to control its depth, and keep all the reflections so that you won’t see what happens on the surface... or underwater in this case. Proper work for the brain muscle. I wanted to top my photo from last year so I had some internal competition going on there too : )
Part 3 | After the Shot
Post-processing: The raw version was already looking like the real deal and I didn't have to go crazy with post edit as I first thought. I use Adobe Lightroom on my iPad and played a bit with shadows and highlights to bring out the detail and added some effects like dehaze and vignette to give more dynamism and drama to it.
It didn’t take much post-processing to finish off the shot.
Anything you would differently if repeating the shot?
Sure, there are plenty things I would like to do better or try out, but with staged photography you must know when to stop, or at least for me it is better to call it before it becomes obsession.
For instance, the water reflections in my image, I really wanted to have the boat leaving a trail of waves behind it to make it look like it's moving but thank God the clay started to melt, otherwise I'd probably still be trying it. I also tried to create northern lights in the sky by using a dark Fourth Element towel as background, and stormy weather by stirring the water, but it all got a bit too technical…
Did you learn anything from this shoot which you’ll be using in non-bath environments?
I'm always taking photos at the bottom or at the end of a cave, but after this experience I might try to do something near the surface using the reflections, they are quite fascinating to play with.
It’s interesting that the two overall winners of this contest are such experienced technical divers and photographers - do you see any reasons why operating in some of the world’s toughest underwater environments helped you to succeed in the tamest environment possible (a bath)?
Haha, that's a good point! I think that the more you've experienced in real life helps you to create an image in your head by picking a detail here and a detail there. When it comes to underwater images, I think Barry and I have quite a selection in our hard drives to select from. In the end this environment is quite extreme for us being so far of from our comfort zones.
My mother taught tought us to build our own toys when we were kids...I have some next level ideas for next year already!