Underwater Photography at the National Geographic

The National Geographic Society has been engaged in the pioneering and making of underwater photographs for most of its nearly 100 years. The first color underwater pictures ever done were made by a Geographic team. A Geographic research grant to Dr. Edgerton financed the building of the prototype deep sea camera that became the standard of the industry. In recent years the Geographic has been the prime mover in remote camera packages that made the first pictures of a submersible below 10,000 feet, and for the same depths, the producing of the first solid state color video camera used outside of a laboratory. The Geographic has its own ROV development program with an emphasis on high quality imaging. Many Geographic solutions to underwater photographic problems are different from those employed by industry. Some Geographic techniques are later used by everyone. This paper will be a quick overview of Geographic contributions to deep sea imaging and a look at recent photographic innovations by the Society that might prove useful to other operators wanting to photograph in the deep ocean.