All images by Tiina Törmänen. Used with Creative Commons permission.
Underwater photography is one of the most challenging yet also breath-taking genres to get into, as we’ve seen in a lot of stunning projects we’ve featured in the past. Today, we bring yet another unique addition in the works of Finland-based Tiina Törmänen, who take us into the dreamworlds beneath the lakes of her country. If you’re a nature lover keen on discovering the beauty of underwater scenes, this set will make you want to take the plunge.
When you take photos underwater, you get a front seat to sights both trippy and stunning. For her Underwater Lake Landscapes set, Törmänen captured some interesting scenes while snorkeling in the lakes of Northern Finland. Taken during the summer and autumn of 2018, we see slices of life, as well as some extraordinary imagery made possible by the properties of water.
In fact, how Törmänen used these properties of water to capture the lakes’ abstract wonders is likely the most striking element of this set. With the unique “inside looking out” angle, she was able to use water’s light-bending and refraction qualities to transform elements out of water into abstract shapes and patterns. No Photoshop and image manipulation involved!
There’s also a particularly haunting image that she managed to snap during this shoot, which she liked for its painterly look. She recently shared the story behind it on her Behance page:
“The lake was full of pink algae, and I did not see any fish at all. I went there a few times to shoot underwater landscapes and second time I saw this dead one mummified into a algae slime. It looked awkward.
“The fish was full of gas, and I free-dived close to the bottom several times, and my fin movement made whirls. At some point, whirl movement breaks the algae, and gas-filled fish popped out to the slime. I was able to shot one picture of it once it happened — the rise of the dead fish.”
Check out Tiina Törmänen’s website and Behance portfolio to see more of her work.