A BEAUTIFUL and brave model has turned herself into a real-life mermaid for the world’s deepest photoshoot – 100ft below the surface of a famous bay.
The once-in-a-lifetime photos by model Ciara Antoski and her skilled photographer Steve Haining, 34, took place next to an old abandoned shipwreck and came out looking amazing despite the pair getting rather wet.
mediadrumimagesPhotographer Steve Haining and model Ciara Antoski broke the world record for the world’s deepest photoshoot[/caption]
mediadrumimagesFigure model Ciara spent 16minutes underwater in two outfits for the shoot as she battled against the conditions to take the record[/caption]
mediadrumimagesThe pictures took place next to the shipwreck of the Niagara II in the Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada[/caption]
The world record breaking deep dive took place in the Georgian Bay, Tobermory, Ontario as Ciara literally held on to the side of the Niagara II shipwreck under the water.
Marvellous images from the shoot show the figure model in two different dresses – one pink and one white – as she poses for the camera using the wreckage as a prop.
The entire attempt underwater lasted just over 45minutes with the actual photos only taking up 16minutes of that time.
Bringing down and removing equipment, cleaning the area around the sunken ship and ensuring the crews safety was almost double that time at 30minutes.
The team of specialists involved in the project had to be talented in many ways to really make it work.
Mareesha Klups came onboard as a masterful diver and bought with her another king of the seas Mario Medarevic who was in charge of keeping everyone on set safe – mainly Ciara who was also trained for her role as a model turned free diver.
One of the biggest challenges faced in the short time in the bay was the freezing temperature of the water.
As Ciara couldn’t wear a wet suit her body was much more likely to suffer from the extreme conditions.
Mareesha kept a close eye on her body temperature and made sure they were close enough to Mario if he ever needed to step in.
Between shots and whenever they wanted to move to a new spot or change of angle Ciara would be given a breathing aid and allowed to wear a mask to let her stay under the water.
Canadian born photographer Haining spoke about his relief and pride at conquering such a huge and impressive record.
He said: “When we beat the record I felt like it was an honour to be recognised but my team and I really wanted to set the bar as far as the record goes.
“That’s why we chose to go much deeper, colder, darker and over all more challenging and exciting as a personal goal.
“We could have gone to the Caribbean and made the shoot super easy but we chose to go back to the cold water of the Great Lakes and really make it as challenging as possible.”
For Steve and the talented gang the project was more about having fun and producing something that was regarded as a masterpiece.
The record has officially earned itself a Guinness World Record and has been immortalised in history.
Steve continued: “There was no goal, we said from the beginning. It’s about safety and having fun if it becomes anything other than that we will call the dive (off) there’s no pressure.
“But having those challenges and limitations and then getting the end results we did is so incredible and the location we shot at is a place we love so to be able to incorporate the passion of diving in Tobermory with my professional work in photography is really special.”
The same team had previously held the record after doing a deep dive during the Covid pandemic.
At that time ambitions were a little lower and they only took it to depths of 30ft.
mediadrumimagesThe mammoth ship sat in the background as Ciara worked the camera to provide some majestic images[/caption]
The team was made of model Ciara, photographer Steven and two diving and safety experts Mareesha Klups and Mario Medarevicmediadrumimages
mediadrumimagesThe team broke their own previous world record by more than three times the depth[/caption]
Leave a comment
