Composite image of the German submarine U-869 ( click to view full size )
A long time ago I decided I wanted to to create a composite image of the German submarine U-869. This is probably the most famous wreck off the coast of New Jersey due to the attention received by the best selling book Shadow Divers and the NOVA documentary Hitler’s Lost Sub . The wreck is far offshore (50+ nm), in kind of deep water (220 fsw) and sits in a depression in the sea bed causing the conditions on the wreck to be highly variable in terms of visibility. On top of that it is always cold (low 40s
Submarines lend themselves well to creating composite images because they are, well, just a long tube sitting on the bottom. Their linear nature and (usually) low profile makes it relatively easy to “walk” a tripod down the length of the wreck while maintaining a constant distance in order to not mess up the perspective from shot to shot. For my first attempt I practiced in warm water and good visibility on the USS TARPON off Cape Hatteras. You can read that story here .