Richard Willamett — Underwater & Landscape Photographer

The descent

Above, you wait for the light. Below, you carry it in with you — and every shot is really about the six feet of water between the strobe and the lens.

Diver with an IQsub XCCR rebreather and camera, Capenwray, UK, 18 m — XCCR18 m, Capenwray

Diver on wreck, 22m, Red Sea — Diver on wreck22 m, Red Sea

A torch beam through a wreck doorway — Doorway20 m, Stoney Cove

Blue-spotted ray, 6m, Red Sea — Blue-spotted ray6 m, Red Sea

Beneath the hull, 4m, Red Sea — Beneath the hull4 m, Red Sea

Masked butterflyfish, 12m, Red Sea — Masked butterflyfish12 m, Red Sea

Tube sponge, 15m, Red Sea — Tube sponge15 m, Red Sea

The shoal, 10m, Red Sea — The shoal10 m, Red Sea

Sunken aircraft fuselage underwater, Capenwray, UK, 18 m — Sunken fuselage18 m, Capenwray

The tank runs low before the eye does. Somewhere near the surface, the two bodies of work meet.

Return to land

You don't photograph a landscape. You photograph the fifteen minutes it agrees to hold still.

Buachaille Etive Mòr, Glencoe, Scottish Highlands — Buachaille Etive MòrGlencoe, Scottish Highlands

Highland mountain range under broken cloud — Highland rangeScottish Highlands

A still Scottish loch in black and white — Still waterScotland

Loch Fyne, Scotland, panoramic landscape photograph — Loch FyneScotland

Two fishing boats beached on a pebble shore at low tide, in black and white — Boats at low tideCornwall

Driftwood on a pebble beach under a stormy sky, in black and white — Driftwood and pebblesCornwall

Richard diving on a wreck with his camera rig and strobes

Photo: Alex Gray

Working depth

Richard shoots two things that don't usually share a portfolio: open landscape and open water. Above ground, the work is slow — waiting on weather, returning to the same ridge until the light does something worth keeping. Below the surface, it's the opposite — a rig, two strobes, careful cable routing, and a window of a few minutes before visibility or air runs out.

One camera bag, two kits — a tripod for the mornings, a rig and strobes for everything after.

11 yrs

behind a housing and a hiking pack

-60 m

deepest dive

1,345 m

highest, Ben Nevis, Scottish Highlands, near Fort William

horizons, above and below the surface