La Digue

Fifteen metres, plenty of light, and our best ground for photography

Town : Case-Pilote

La Digue is dived from Case-Pilote. The register of Martinique sites calls it La Digue de Case Pilote, and files it just before Trou Rouge, our neighbouring site on the same stretch of coast.

It is a shallow dive, from the surface to about fifteen metres. The sources agree on three things: plenty of gorgonians, remarkable brightness in clear weather, and no minimum level required. You will find sponges, corals, schools of sardines and reef fish, and seahorses are reported here. A light current is possible.

Why this is our best site for photography

Underwater, light is everything. It fades fast with depth, and red is the first colour to go: past five metres it has already left the scene. A red fish photographed at twenty metres without a light comes out grey.

A site that stays within the first fifteen metres therefore keeps its natural light, and its colours with it. No amount of equipment makes up for that.

Three things that change everything

• Get close. Every centimetre of water between lens and subject adds haze and eats colour. A photo taken at thirty centimetres beats one taken at two metres, whatever the camera.
• Hold still without settling. The temptation is to lean on the bottom to steady the frame. That is how you break in one second a coral that took years to grow.
• Shoot upwards. Taking a fish from above gives you a back and a sandy background. Getting to its level, or slightly below, gives you an eye and blue behind it.

What level you need here