scuuuba in the pool

Did: arranged tank rental (1 hr)
signed pool contract (1 hr)
milk jug work (2 hrs)
picking up equipment/transporting to pool (2 hrs)
time in pool, setting up & photographing (3 hrs)
editing photos/video/working on presentation (3-4 hrs)
returning tank/cleaning equipment (1 hr)

Accomplished/Discovered: I feel like I did a ridiculous amount of leg work to get into the pool this week. There were so many things that could have gone wrong and almost/sort of did. I am hoping that now that I have figured all of this out, the process should be much easier. I arranged for a tank rental last Friday, picked it up this Wednesday, went to the pool on Wednesday night, and returned the tank yesterday afternoon, whew! Then I had to sign a contract for the pool rental... that was a process... Once I had moved everything to the pool I started setting up my equipment. Unfortunately I had a slight equipment malfunction over which I had a short anxiety attack, but I was still able to dive in the pool. Yesterday afternoon I dropped off all of my scuba equipment to be checked out.

The actual pool experience, however, was phenomenal. In a serendipitous turn of events, a classmate of mine (Jake) from my "Creating Art Outdoors" class, has been working on a large plastic piece with the intention of using it in a lake or river. Ideally it would partially fill with water, and the edges, which are inflatable, would help keep the water in. I told Jake about my project and he decided to bring everything on Wednesday as well. Since the piece is actually pretty big, it became a great background for my work.

We were able to play around with a lot of variables. He had rented lighting equipment from the Duderstadt and that created an amazing glow in the pool. We were able to shut all the lights off in the pool as well.

The entire experience was incredibly surreal. Jake's piece looked like a giant inverted jellyfish.

When he began swimming in it it actually looked as if he was encased in an enormous egg-like structure. His silhouette went in and out. Sometimes I would see just his hands pressing on the interior of the structure and the rest of his figure would be lost in a hazy shadow.Here are more images from the evening:
Do: Now I need to focus on getting ready for my December review on Tuesday... That will include editing more photographs by that time. Over break I also need to start thinking about what will really be important for me to photograph at my next pool date (Jan. 13th). Then I can actively start to build it :D

I am also super excited just to have some down time over break... I can't wait :)