Underwater Toy Photography!

mitchelwu
Jan 14
3 min read

Updated: Jan 21

A scuba diving toy rabbit next to his octopus friend. The water is a turquoise blue and water lily pads float on the surface above.

Photographing toys from both above and below the surface of the Toi Pond has always been the goal. I'm very comfortable shooting toys from above the water, with my camera placed on a tripod in the water - that's something I've done countless times over the years, either in a backyard puddle, a river, or in coastal tide pools. And now, in the Toi Pond. But photographing toys underwater was completely new to me, and something that I was very excited to explore. In 2026 I've set some aggressive creative goals for myself, and creating stories and images underwater is one of them. I've shot toys in so many different environments - underwater kind of feels like the final frontier. There was a lot of problem solving involved and a pretty steep learning curve. New equipment was required along with some very specialized gear. I definitely went down the rabbit hole on this, which seemed appropriate since I was shooting Max, a toy rabbit, and his sidekick Ratzo the octopus from Boss Fight Studio.

I hit a major technical snag during some early tests: Bluetooth signals don't transmit through water. This effectively killed the camera's connection to my phone app, leaving me flying blind. My vision (no pun intended!) for this project relied entirely on seeing a live feed and controlling the camera remotely. This was a problem I had to solve if I was going to photograph toys underwater in any meaningful, repeatable way. To paraphrase filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, "You need to figure out a way to turn chicken sh-t into chicken salad."

After researching potential solutions online I stumbled upon an innovative product called the Seeker Marine Kit, from Australian company, Seavu (link below). It's exactly what I needed, a wired transmitter and receiver that connects action cams to cell phones and tablets. Its primary use is to view underwater environments and conditions for ocean fishing. Such a brilliant idea, and one I thought could be adapted to my underwater toy photography needs. Long story short, I was right. Beautiful design, flawless operation! Shout out to Seavu founder and visionary, Charlo Carabott, for his incredible kindness and support in getting me up and running. Chicken sh-t had indeed turned to chicken salad!

a product photo of the Seavu Seeker marine unit next to a photo of the Seavu Seeker being used by me.

With that potential goal-crusher behind me I proceeded with my first underwater shoot. The below BTS video shows the gear I used as well as my setup. You can find more images and links to everything below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypi-CnMekRk

The Toys

The stars of this production are Scuba Max and Ratzo the Octopus, from Boss Fight Studio's Sam & Max Collection. Shout out to artist/illustrator Steve Purcell, creator of the Sam & Max comics, and a former art school classmate of mine.

Scuba rabbit and octopus toys in their window packaging

product shots of Scuba Max rabbit and the octopus

The Gear

Below is the gear I used for this shoot...

underwater shot of the DJI Osmo Action 6 on a small tripod

My main underwater camera is the recently released DJI Osmo Action 6. It is waterproof to 65', but for added safety I also use a waterproof housing - the Telesin Action 6 waterproof case. I also have the DJI Osmo Action 5 with a Telesin waterproof housing, which I used to film my underwater BTS. The tripod is a Neewer mini aluminum tripod - I currently have 3 of these little tripods for various uses in and around the Toi Pond. They can do double duty as they're designed to work with regular DSLRs as well as action cams.

A behind view showing the scuba Max rabbit and octopus with the dji osmo action 6 camera pointed at them

Another angle of my setup.

a photo of Mitchel Wu preparing to take an underwater photo while holding an underwater light on a telescoping rod.

In this image you can see me trying some different lighting positions, which I'm using the Seavu Seeker to monitor in the live feed on my iPhone. For underwater lighting I'm using the Suptig Underwater Light. This is a fantastic LED light that fits the scale of the Toi Pond, and the toys, perfectly. I'll be adding a few more of these lights to my underwater kit soon.