Underwater Photography: Safety, Pricing and Method with Alison Bounce

A mom-to-be floating with her eyes closed, wrapped in a white veil: underwater photos are mesmerizing. But behind these images, there's a pool rented by the hour, a lifeguard, assistants, immersions lasting a few seconds and a lot of precautions. Alison Bounce knows this better than anyone: she could barely swim at 18, nearly drowned on a scuba dive, and yet started doing underwater photography in 2014, at a time when almost no one in France was doing it.

Talking with Eloa Landais, photographer and head of training at Fotostudio, she tells how a scene she witnessed in the Philippines changed her career, walks through an underwater maternity photoshoot step by step, and shares her safety rules, her prices and her equipment. She also explains why she still shoots weddings on the side.

Who is Alison Bounce?

Alison Bounce is an underwater photographer and wedding photographer, originally from the Ardèche region and based in the south of France. At the time of recording, in spring 2021, she had just turned 33.

• Former firefighter: prevention, safety and hygiene are “her thing”, and they guide everything she does underwater.
• Professional photographer since 2014, starting with documentary wedding photography, with a spontaneous and quirky approach.
• Underwater photography since late 2014: mostly moms-to-be, but also portraits, animals, sets, product and advertising photography.
• Author of Les Secrets du portrait underwater (“The Secrets of Underwater Portraiture”, published in French by Eyrolles), presented as the first technical book dedicated to underwater portraits, and a trainer for photographers who want to get started.
• Traveler: in early 2020, she spent just over four weeks on a 20-meter sailboat in Antarctica, dove into water at 1 or 2°C wearing a 5 mm wetsuit, and came home right in the middle of the pandemic.

Today, her website alisonbounce.com (in French) presents her as an underwater photographer, artist and filmmaker based in Hyères, in the Var region of southern France, specializing in femininity and motherhood: underwater maternity, couple and family sessions, advertising photography, exhibitions, underwater portrait training and a print shop.

1. How do you become an underwater photographer when you're afraid of water?

Alison was a photographer first, and only later an “underwater” one. She learned to swim at around 18 or 19 for her firefighter entrance exams: a sports science professor, who knew that she and water “didn't get along”, signed her up for swimming without asking. In one semester, she was swimming a 400-meter individual medley. Later, while traveling, an introductory scuba dive went wrong: she nearly drowned and switched to a mask and snorkel.

The turning point in the Philippines

While snorkeling in the Philippines, she saw a pregnant woman dip her eldest son underwater. At first, she thought he was drowning. The child came up laughing, went back down, and followed the bubbles and the light. Back at her bungalow, she typed “baby underwater”, found the famous album cover with the swimming baby, then discovered that underwater housings existed. Three or four days later, she ordered one, telling herself that at worst, she would sell it again.

“Photographer first. I actually started out with a phobia of water.”

Alison Bounce

An epic first session

In late 2014, she asked a public swimming pool to let her run some tests, with the very first mom she had photographed on dry land, who was then pregnant with her second child. First immersion: the housing leaked, because of a forgotten seal. At the time, there were almost no resources on the subject in France. So Alison taught herself, digging into every detail: she teamed up with a midwife, trained in freediving, renewed her BNSSA (a French lifeguard certificate required to supervise swimming areas) and learned to take her housing apart and put it back together.

2. How does an underwater maternity photoshoot work?

Moms-to-be account for most of Alison's underwater sessions. Since the time spent underwater is very short, almost everything happens before the session.

Planning with a pencil

Several prep meetings, “thousands of questions” and a questionnaire in which the client sends back her inspiration. One surprising rule: no underwater photos in the inspiration, so as not to copy what already exists. Alison sells unique memories. She then draws small sketches of 5 to 8 poses, which the mom-to-be rehearses at home, on her bed, with her eyes closed, until the pose becomes second nature. Underwater, you lose all your bearings and have to manage your breathing: if the pose is already learned, “you've won”.

This kind of preparation is a great fit for online tools: a questionnaire sent before the session lets you collect the client's wishes, her inspiration, how comfortable she is in the water and how far along her pregnancy is, without endless email threads.

On the day: immersions lasting a few seconds

Alison always goes under first. Three seconds are enough for her to stabilize and frame the shot, then the client goes under, and the photographer adjusts her position during the four seconds the mom is underwater. Immersions last 3 to 6 seconds, there are around thirty of them, with plenty of breaks, and the client stays in the water for no more than an hour to an hour and twenty minutes. It isn't freediving: the mom takes a breath before going down, then breathes out gently and continuously.

“I'm selling them unique memories, so they might as well be truly unique.”

Alison Bounce

Supporting clients who aren't comfortable in the water

About 10% of her clients aren't very comfortable in the water. Alison doesn't turn them away: she plans coaching ahead of time, a shallower pool, and a nose clip for head-back poses, where water gets into the sinuses. Above all, she teaches them to block their nose by pressing their tongue against the roof of their mouth, which is impossible when you puff out your cheeks, the typical reflex of people who are afraid of water, and rarely flattering in photos.

3. What safety rules apply to an underwater photoshoot?

Safety runs through the whole episode. Her years as a firefighter “drilled” prevention into her, and safety takes up an entire chapter of her book and at least one full day of her training courses.

In the pool

• A lifeguard is always there, and gives the mom-to-be a short swim test, even after the questions asked beforehand.
• Depth: 1.20 m (about 4 feet) of water is enough for a complete maternity session. When you need deeper water (2 to 2.50 m, about 6.5 to 8 feet), two pool noodles or a rope let the mom hold on as she comes up, without ever having to swim.
• Temperature: at least 28 to 30°C (82 to 86°F), because you move very little during a session and get cold quickly.
• Water quality: for moms-to-be, Alison prefers saltwater pools to chlorinated ones.
• No scuba tanks: scuba diving is banned from her practice, for herself and for her models alike. Everything is done on short breath-holds.

With moms-to-be

Alison recommends the eighth month of pregnancy: at 6 or 7 months, some medical conditions don't show yet. She asks every client for a certificate from her midwife confirming there's no medical reason not to do the session. To keep the midwife from panicking at the words “short breath-holds at nine months pregnant”, she wrote a document with Marine, the midwife she works with, explaining how the session works: an hour and a half in total, but barely a minute and a half spent underwater altogether. These conditions (certificate, session outline, additional costs) are worth putting in writing in a contract signed by the client before the session.

“What we do is no small thing.”

Alison Bounce

In open water

In the sea or in a river, Alison recommends a scuba or freediving instructor, one person on safety duty outside the water and another in the water, ready to help the models swim. Conditions change, and there can be currents or animals. She mentions the classic “trash the dress” case: a waterlogged wedding dress becomes very heavy, and accidents have already happened.

And on dry land, too

Alison widens the discussion: on dry land as well, photographers sometimes handle babies who aren't their own while chasing the “wow” shot. She gives the example of the newborn pose with the head resting in the hands, propped up on the elbows, which is actually a composite: an assistant holds the head while the rest is photographed, then the other way around. Eloa links this to the episode on newborn safety during photoshoots with Mathilde Anceaume, who stands for the same high standards in newborn photography.

4. Where can you find a pool for your photoshoots?

According to Alison, finding a pool is mostly a matter of persistence: many of her students write to ten places, then give up. There are plenty of options:

• Public swimming pools, as for her very first session.
• Private venues: spas, gyms.
• Private homeowners who rent out their pool on platforms such as Swimmy or louemapiscine.com, as long as the owner agrees to professional use and you sign a proper rental agreement.
• Your own pool: two of her students had one built to use as their home studio.

Ideally, you have a regular pool close to home: you know the light, and the safety plan is already in place. But it will rarely have as many time slots as you need, which is why it pays to rotate between two or three venues. Alison, for her part, enjoys the challenge of discovering a new pool, scouting it and drawing up a new prevention plan every time.

Grouping your sessions

In Paris, where costs are high, she rents a private pool for the day, from 8 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m., and runs three sessions back to back. That means scheduling several moms-to-be at the right stage of pregnancy on the same day: online booking slots opened only on that day make this kind of planning much easier.

5. How much should you charge for an underwater photoshoot?

Alison admits it: underwater photography is what taught her to value her work. You can't sell an underwater session for 350 or 400 euros, because the logistics are expensive. To give you an idea, in 2021:

• Pool rental: about 50 euros an hour.
• Lifeguard: about 60 euros for a one-and-a-half-hour session.
• Assistants: 100 euros each per session, preparation included.
• Styling: dresses and fabrics, billed back to the client for special requests.

The minimum price she recommends to her students

Alison urges her students never to go below a 650 euro session fee, “the absolute bare minimum”, and to aim for 850 euros instead. For the first ten sessions, she recommends a package with 5 images included, then selling extra images individually, so you pay off your training and equipment in fewer than eight sessions. In the long run, the ideal is to charge only a session fee and sell all the images and prints on top. Her own session fees range from 650 to 950 euros depending on the cost of the pool, with a target average sale of around 1,500 to 2,000 euros.

“Don't go below that, or you won't cover your costs.”

Alison Bounce

To set your own price based on your real costs (rental, assistants, equipment, editing time), the photography price calculator helps you find the threshold below which a session loses you money. And to sell extra images, an online gallery lets the client choose and buy her photos after the session.

6. What equipment and lighting do you need underwater?

The basic piece of kit is an underwater housing that holds your camera. Since her failed first session, Alison has become an ambassador for the housing brand she works with, and can service it and put it back together “with her eyes closed”.

A studio full of water

On her website, she talks about an “underwater studio”. She uses dive lights (one at 6,000 lumens and one at 10,000 lumens), which you must never take out of the water while they're on, because they heat up and burn out, and strobes, underwater flashes, mounted on tripods at the bottom of the pool. In the sea, her assistants hold the lights. She can even hang a large colored fabric against the pool wall to hide the tiles, like the yellow backdrop used during one workshop.

“I dress my models with light.”

Alison Bounce

Floating dresses, then fewer and fewer dresses

For outfits, you need light fabrics that float and create beautiful movement, such as chiffon or organza. Alison buys dresses for 30 or 40 euros and reworks them herself. But her clients ask for them less and less: since late 2019, she has gone back to the minimalism of her early days and also photographs artistic nudes. Less fabric, but more lighting to rent so the image stays elegant and well defined.

7. Weddings and underwater: letting go or controlling everything?

Alison never dreamed of a wedding for herself, but she loves everything that happens at one. As a wedding photographer, she sees herself as “the couple's lookout”: while they live their moment, she watches for the scenes they won't see, like the uncle still in his pajamas dunking his toast in his coffee in front of everyone.

Two opposite specialties

At weddings, she controls nothing: she lets things happen without stepping in, and simply adjusts her lighting, even if it means constantly moving her flashes during the evening. Editing is limited to color, contrast and cropping. Underwater, on the other hand, she controls everything from start to finish: the pose, the lighting, detailed retouching. And it's underwater work that is the most restful for her physically, compared with the “marathon” of a wedding day.

Since 2018, she has gone from 30 to 35 weddings a year to about ten, to take the time to really connect with her couples and make more room for underwater photography. In 2019, her income was split roughly 50/50 between the two activities.

“Simplicity really bores me.”

Alison Bounce

8. Should you get trained in underwater photography?

When Alison started, the only books available were for divers, focused on fish and coral. So she wrote the book she wished she had found, for professional and amateur photographers, for freedivers who already take pictures without knowing how to expose a subject properly, and for clients curious to see what goes on behind the scenes of a session.

Three days of training, then a year of mentoring

To her, training is essential, to save time and above all to work safely. But a three-day course, however intensive, isn't enough: without practice, you quickly forget, and you get discouraged. So she set up at least a year of follow-up mentoring after her courses. Groups stay small (8 or 9 students depending on the size of the pool), with guest instructors such as a freediving and yoga teacher or her midwife, and almost nothing but hands-on practice.

“It's methodical: as long as you have the method, you can do it.”

Alison Bounce

Real physical fitness

Alison insists on one point she kept quiet about at first: you need to be athletic. During a session, the photographer is the one who “carries” the session, holding her breath and constantly going up and down. She holds about 20 seconds underwater during a session, and has to keep up with freediving models who can hold 30 or 40. Today, she can do two or three sessions a day, knowing her limits.

This episode was recorded in spring 2021, during the pandemic. Pools were closed to the public at the time; the book on Antarctica, the prices and the training setup mentioned here refer to that period. Alison Bounce's current work and courses are presented on her website.

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