The story of when I shot these photo panoramas began a long time ago: It was 10 years ago, when I came up with the idea to learn diving, which resulted in me signing up for scuba diving classes in the 6-meter-deep swimming pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex (Moscow).

The classes were uneventful except for one funny incident, which I remember very well. During one of our final sessions we learned how to help a partner (a dive buddy), who ran out of oxygen, breathe underwater. According to one of the rules, a person in distress is supposed to turn to his or her dive buddy (beginners always have to dive in pairs for security reasons) and use a special sign to show that he needs air. His partner in return needs to acknowledge it with an "okay" sign and then offer his hose to breathe in, and they then take turns.  It is pretty simple. There is probably a special name for that hose, but because it's been 10 years since I've use that word, I have forgotten the term and will just call it a hose for now.

So, back to my story! My dive buddy and I were swimming in circles in the swimming pool, taking turns showing signs to each other and sharing the oxygen. It was fun! Then we became bored with practicing the skill and went on to goofing around. So here I was, swimming by myself, when I suddenly saw my buddy, who had been frolicking with someone else on the other side of the pool just a moment ago, darting back towards me, waving his hands. It was funny at first, but when he got closer, I saw his big, bulging eyes and stopped laughing.  The rest happened in a split second: as soon as he was close enough to reach me, he grabbed my hose, pulled it from my mouth (with the risk of knocking my teeth out!), immediately put it in his mouth, and started to breathe feverishly. It was clear that he needed it very desperately at the moment, and it was also clear that he liked my oxygen quite a bit. Suddenly I remembered that I had to breathe too! It was a challenge getting my hose back from him.

Apparently, our instructor saw that my dive buddy had lost his vigilance and left me alone.  He swam to my buddy from behind and closed his oxygen tank. When my buddy tried to take another sip of fresh air, he realized that there was none left. However, instead of asking the nearest diver for oxygen, he decided to return to his own dive buddy and do as he was taught. But by the time he reached me, he didn't have time to exchange signs and simply grabbed my hose.  After that, the instructor swam by, shook his finger at my buddy, and opened his tank to resume the oxygen flow.

This is how it all started :)

10 years later I visited the Maldives Islands for the first time, and the story continues.

There were no helicopters available on the Maldives Islands to shoot aerial panoramas. To escape beach boredom, I decided to go underwater with my camera.

I conducted my first experiments at home in Moscow in a bathtub, lowering my camera underwater in horror...

I spent 2 days running between the bathtub and my computer, but I didn't achieve a satisfactory result. It was time to go to the Maldives, and so I continued my experiments on the beach, shooting in the shallow water right by my bungalow.

I made acquaintances with all the local fish and studied all the rocks in a 50-meter radius. I kept running from the water back to my room, where I had my notebook plugged in, and back again and then again. My sunbathing neighbors drank their cocktails and watched me with amusement. My head and my right wrist (which I held my camera with) got sunburn.

As a result, after 2 days of experiments, I changed my lens, my shooting technique, my camera settings, and the way I used my camera. Then I rented a catamaran, sailed to the nearest coral reef, and tried shooting real spherical panoramas there.

It worked. I corrected a few more mistakes and realized that it was time to go diving, so I signed up for a dive session at the local dive club. Although it had been a while since my last dive, and I had forgotten almost everything, my dive instructor (a Russian guy, as you could probably guess) encouraged me; "Just put on the oxygen tank and jump in. You will remember it!" And so I jumped. At first it was scary and difficult to the point that I had to hand my camera to the instructor, but then I became more and more comfortable and started to take pictures by myself.

Please take a look at what I have accomplished!

Photo and text by Oleg Gaponyuk