I quitted my job and became an underwater photographer.
Lucie Drlíková grew up the Czech Republic, and started studying and living abroad. She occupied managerial positions in large corporate firms for 20 years, when she decided she wanted to do something where she can be herself and use her creativity more. At that time she already had her first camera and started shooting underwater, as well as regular portrait photography. Then, from one day to another, she decided it was time to pursue her passion, and so she quit her job, which did provide her a great amount of security, but it did not give her the true meaning to her work which she only receives when seeing her clients happy with their pictures.
How did you become passionate about underwater photography, it is obviously a very specific type of photography demanding you to spend a lot of time in the water. What inspired you?
Before I started with underwater photography, I had been a scuba diver for 20 years already. Then my father bought a tiny underwater camera to take pictures when we dive together and I thought it was fun, so I bought one myself too. And that`s when it all started. Few years after that I bought a big camera with housing and started shooting marine life.
How do you cope with all the underwater work photographer has to do, what does it take? Give us a bit of insider look into an underwater shoot please.
It brings some heavy work with it :) When I create scenes, I take everything underwater of course, nothing you see on the pictures was Photoshopped in later. Then it depends if I shoot in a swimming pool, or open water. In swimming pools I also need to lay down some background, mostly to cover up the tiles in the pool. But I enjoy the work so much, that all of this is secondary and I don’t pay much attention to it.
You are based in Czech Republic which is not a very suitable place for water photography, I would think. Do you have to travel to find the best places and waters for the shoots?
I have found a great place in the Czech Republic, for pool shooting, where I take my clients, and for the advanced ones or for my own projects I use the freedivers’ pool, which is about 20ft deep.
These conceptual photo shoots where you create your own scene are absolutely amazing. How do you come up with these concepts?
I am a dreamer, I get inspiration every day from what I see, I put my dreams to life this way.
You also photograph regular people, I can imagine people are not used to keep underwater poses and faces, how do you make sure their expressions are real and so natural?
Before each shoot I work with the clients to coach them how to feel comfortable under water. We spend about 30 minutes training this before I even get my camera out to make sure that the shooting will be nothing but a positive experience for them.
I’m very curious about this wonderful shoot you did with Cristina Zenato in the Bahamas, tell us a bit about it, how did it go?
I was excited about shooting with Cristina. She approached me after I published one of my projects for shark protection. It was a very special time that we had creating our images. It was just the two of us and the sharks, cave, ocean, so the shooting was very intimate and I was super happy about how the pictures came out. This shooting was for sure for me the life experience. I am hoping to do this another time in the future. Cristina is amazing woman and I am very happy to call her my friend. She dedicated her life to the ocean, sharks and cave exploring.
If you were to live in the Caribbean, where would it be?
Maybe Cayman Islands. Very difficult to say, I still need to discover lot of Caribbean islands.
Instagram @luciedrlikovaphotography
