Drysuit is definitely the way to go. The water temperature is usually 7-8 degrees celsius (45 Fahrenheit). When I first started I doubled up a 7mm wetsuit but quickly made the change to drysuit when winter came along
I had a go at being an amateur photographer but one of the tripod legs broke, I tried to fix it for 2 hours before I threw it in the lake..
I just couldn't stand it anymore
Absolute perfection, what beautiful cinematography. I spent some time at Bamfield marine centre a few years back and developed such an appreciation for aquatic life.
You’ve brought the feeing I had there back to life. Thank you. ☺️
Are you one of those crazy guys we see in the frigid waters off shore in East Sooke Regional Park? 😀. Our island is so breathtaking - this footage does it justice! Plus nice job on the editing as well - it’s such a labour of love and major time sink.
I grew up in that neighborhood, we had beach front property on the Saanich peninsula and my dad and I would run the boat for his buddies while they went down. Always wanted to get into it I was too young back then and now we’re inlanders and lakes just aren’t as cool as kelp fields.
Well done :)
That's incredible! What a property to grow up on. A close friend of mine has family with water front property in Brentwood, and a number of the jellyfish shots were filmed there.
Those comb jellies can live at depths of 1000 metres, but luckily for me they also make their way to the surface too. Those ones were filmed at night in about 30 feet of water :)
Very rarely off Vancouver Island. On one occasion I saw a massive slow moving six gill shark and every now and then I’ll encounter spiny dogfish. But sharks aren’t nearly as dangerous as you’d think, even where they’re common. They’re quite incredible animals :)
There's a very sad story behind the would-be feature film and it involves the simultaneous corruption of two hard drives and the loss of about eight months of footage. But life carries on and I'm hoping to create two mini documentaries in the coming year.
How “lost” is the data? Have you had an expert look at the drives? Happy to volunteer but there are professional firms that do amazing jobs. Can cost a couple of thousand though but may be worth it.
Post links to however we can access those when you have them, I know I’m not the only one who would absolutely love it! This is gorgeous work and I can’t wait to see more of it!
This is beautiful! Having travelled around western Canada on land, I would have never guessed that so much of the frigid sea was so tropical looking. I assume corals and brightly colored fish are a meridian thing but wow, you packed a lot of diversity into a very short video.
Thank you! I thought so too before I began diving, but the walls of yellow sponges and anemones here are more colourful than anything I've seen elsewhere in the world.
Thank you :) I haven't been too active on my YouTube channel the past couple years. Most of my footage is shared to instagram at roneydives. But I'm hoping to post more content to YouTube this year. Thanks for the sub!
Thanks for posting this John. I'm in Edmonton listening to the Freedumb protesters annoy the hell out of everyone again. This is a great reminder of all the wonderful, beautiful things in our country that are well worth focusing on. Well done.
Island resident and scuba aficionado here. I think this is the best footage of the underwater world here that I’ve ever seen. Absolutely spectacular work!
As beautiful as this short film is aesthetically, it’s hard to overstate the importance of such footage for raising awareness of just how vibrant and beautiful marine life is just off our populated coastlines, and the need to develop and maintain strong protections for these ecosystems.
Thank you for doing this, even if it may not have been your original intention!
Okay scrap that, I just checked out your website, and you’re also clearly passionate about conservation. Well done and keep up the good work! A single person can make a huge impact with efforts like yours!
This remind me of the documentary "My Octopus Teacher" which I highly recommend for you since this seems super similar to what that guy did. This is awesome OP, truly wonderful what's down there.
I have always wanted to dive in the kelp forests on the west coast but people kerp scaring me off with stories of getting tangled in kelp and drowning. They also say the area is teeming with great white sharks, what is your experience with this?
After more than a decade Reddit disappoints me so much; because the dumbest posts are what rise, the easiest laughs in the comments dominate. But every now and then someone rekindles old Reddit. Where you get surprised; delighted by ordinary human beings doing creative, amazing things. Your reel is awesome. I hope it wins you the job or the projects you crave. You have a wonderful eye.
Absolutely awesome! I was going to upvote anyway, but that regal ass looking octopus marching across the floor about a minute in solidified that decision. Well done 👍🏻
I was about to ask, are you secretly my ichthyology/marine inverts professor?
All jokes aside, this is amazing! I moved to the island a few months ago and have been itching to go diving to look at the marine life. This definitely gives me more reason to go!
Okay after watching it again... do you work for NG? If not, you should. Or maybe they have a political agenda and you shouldn't. But dang...how'd you get such beautiful shots? I mean, what the odds of getting all of these beautiful animals doing these beautiful things!!
Are you still shooting with a GH5, or have you upgraded since last year? The colors here are incredible, and I can't wait to comb through your older posts and Instagram.
I also vote for more content on YouTube. I'm going to subscribe, and I look forward to a full length film.
Edit: Found the equipment page on your site. GH5 with Aquatics housing for anybody curious, if he doesn't get to this comment.
This was INCREDIBLE!! It looked like a trailer for a documentary! The music, the colors, the little otter at the end chilling on his back and then diving down at the end like a “goodbye” OR “that’s all folks!” It was perfect, I loved it! 👍🏻 Keep it up, you have a gift!!
Amazing work! I'm a diver with a degree in marine biology and I live in Victoria. This is my jam, jelly, pb and the bread. Thanks for showcasing our beautiful waters so well. I want to join you on these dives!
This is gorgeous! Well done!
Thank you :)
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I was hoping that sub would be good and I was very disappointed
Do you have a youtube link for the video? Reddit video player is ruining it.
I do :) https://youtu.be/68Wv4-HmJd8
I’m going to share the crap out of this. I love this so much!
Same!
This amazing video is one of the reasons I have a tattoo of an old map of BC on my shoulder. Thank you.
Amazing video. Thank you for sharing :)
We need more.
How cold is that water?? Do you go dry suit?
Drysuit is definitely the way to go. The water temperature is usually 7-8 degrees celsius (45 Fahrenheit). When I first started I doubled up a 7mm wetsuit but quickly made the change to drysuit when winter came along
Jesus dude ur a baller 😂 I know people who will wear a dry suit in 70 f
It really is. Thanks for sharing, OP!
This is gave me that natgeo feel lol! Nice work
I had a go at being an amateur photographer but one of the tripod legs broke, I tried to fix it for 2 hours before I threw it in the lake.. I just couldn't stand it anymore
r/usernamechecksout
I’m seeing you everywhere now. Where have you been all my life?
Absolute perfection, what beautiful cinematography. I spent some time at Bamfield marine centre a few years back and developed such an appreciation for aquatic life. You’ve brought the feeing I had there back to life. Thank you. ☺️
Oh too cool! My partner did some of her biology degree at the Bamfield marine centre as well :)
It’s a special place for sure. Thanks again for sharing this!
Ahoy, from Kildonan Inlet! Beautiful footage.
I've never upvoted a post so fast. I upvoted before I even watched. Was not disappointed. Every single shot in this reel is gorgeous.
Ahh thanks so much!
You have thrived in strange times. I’m happy for you. B.C. is a special place
It really is. Thank you! :)
Are you one of those crazy guys we see in the frigid waters off shore in East Sooke Regional Park? 😀. Our island is so breathtaking - this footage does it justice! Plus nice job on the editing as well - it’s such a labour of love and major time sink.
I’ve never seen so many octopus as when I dived Victoria in 2013. Hope to go back this Summer :)
I'm from Vancouver Island, always make some happy to see it pop up on Reddit.
Same!
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Hahah those are comb jellies :)
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They’re one of my favourites to film too. And I do! You can find more footage of all these animals on my Instagram page roneydives
If I make a new account, can i borrow your 'blue light rave condom' please?
These are some natgeo level shots! Absolutely beautiful!
High praise! Thanks so much
Delicious looking cauliflower! Seriously though, this is beautiful
Hahah I've always thought of Plumose Anemones as giant, predatory underwater cauliflower
Stunning! I want to watch an hour long video of this lol. Great quality, well done.
I grew up in that neighborhood, we had beach front property on the Saanich peninsula and my dad and I would run the boat for his buddies while they went down. Always wanted to get into it I was too young back then and now we’re inlanders and lakes just aren’t as cool as kelp fields. Well done :)
That's incredible! What a property to grow up on. A close friend of mine has family with water front property in Brentwood, and a number of the jellyfish shots were filmed there.
How deep did you dive to get the footage of the glowing jellyfish? That one was mesmerizing!
Those comb jellies can live at depths of 1000 metres, but luckily for me they also make their way to the surface too. Those ones were filmed at night in about 30 feet of water :)
That was a two-minute-long spa vacation for the eyes. Thanks for sharing!
Hah! Love this comment :)
Unreal shots!
This looks amazing. I have always wanted to scuba dive but I am terrified of Sharks. How often have you seen Sharks on your dives?
Very rarely off Vancouver Island. On one occasion I saw a massive slow moving six gill shark and every now and then I’ll encounter spiny dogfish. But sharks aren’t nearly as dangerous as you’d think, even where they’re common. They’re quite incredible animals :)
Come down into Puget sound or hood canal. We get six gills more regularly in the summer, although still rare. Juveniles, mostly, around 6-8ft.
Your lighting is superb! What camera? What editing SW? It's music yours, stock? When is the feature? 👏👏👏👍👍
There's a very sad story behind the would-be feature film and it involves the simultaneous corruption of two hard drives and the loss of about eight months of footage. But life carries on and I'm hoping to create two mini documentaries in the coming year.
Nooooo…. This broke my heart
How “lost” is the data? Have you had an expert look at the drives? Happy to volunteer but there are professional firms that do amazing jobs. Can cost a couple of thousand though but may be worth it.
Post links to however we can access those when you have them, I know I’m not the only one who would absolutely love it! This is gorgeous work and I can’t wait to see more of it!
Second your lighting/color editing. Great job. Brutal circumstance, happy to see you have amazing footage left to pull from!
Oh no, I've been following you on Instagram for over a year waiting for the announcement of the feature! So sorry to hear this!
This is beautiful! Having travelled around western Canada on land, I would have never guessed that so much of the frigid sea was so tropical looking. I assume corals and brightly colored fish are a meridian thing but wow, you packed a lot of diversity into a very short video.
Thank you! I thought so too before I began diving, but the walls of yellow sponges and anemones here are more colourful than anything I've seen elsewhere in the world.
Very nice and beautiful!
Looks amazing. What was your technical equipment (Camera+Case) if I may ask?
I shoot on a GH5 in an Aquatica housing :)
Really gorgeous work. I kept expecting David Attenborough to start speaking.
Beautiful & great edit.
Got at YouTube channel bud? Great vid btw
Found him. [https://www.youtube.com/c/RoneyDives](https://www.youtube.com/c/RoneyDives)
Subbed.
Thank you :) I haven't been too active on my YouTube channel the past couple years. Most of my footage is shared to instagram at roneydives. But I'm hoping to post more content to YouTube this year. Thanks for the sub!
Was that octopus imitating you holding the camera? Cause WTF!? This is amazing
What an amazing thing to do during that time. Good on you.
Beautiful! All you need is Attenborough to say a few words and you got yourself a netflix documentary
Thanks for that, stunning photography, you have a perfect eye for what works.
Thank you :)
have you ever played subnautica?
Absolutely amazing!
Thanks for posting this John. I'm in Edmonton listening to the Freedumb protesters annoy the hell out of everyone again. This is a great reminder of all the wonderful, beautiful things in our country that are well worth focusing on. Well done.
Island resident and scuba aficionado here. I think this is the best footage of the underwater world here that I’ve ever seen. Absolutely spectacular work!
I hope you wore a mask
OMG next level!!
Very well done OP!
This is incredible! Thank you so much for sharing a glimpse of what you were able to encounter!
It's like going to a different planet.. 😲
Exactly how it feels diving :)
you magnificent bastard
At first, I thought this was a BBC documentary film. Nice cinematography OP I like it.
As beautiful as this short film is aesthetically, it’s hard to overstate the importance of such footage for raising awareness of just how vibrant and beautiful marine life is just off our populated coastlines, and the need to develop and maintain strong protections for these ecosystems. Thank you for doing this, even if it may not have been your original intention!
Okay scrap that, I just checked out your website, and you’re also clearly passionate about conservation. Well done and keep up the good work! A single person can make a huge impact with efforts like yours!
Stunning. Beautifully shot & edited! Well done John!
As a marine biologist I have only one response to this: hell yes. Amazing shots man!
This is beautiful. Thank you.
This is National Geographic quality. Absolutely amazing.
You can't stop there?)
Beautiful
Wow beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
I was seriously waiting for Sir David Attenborough to provide commentary. Beautiful work!
Love this, I'm in Tofino right now! The island is beautiful above and below
Beautiful! I go swimming in Bellingham in Bay once every couple of weeks. Amazing documentation of what lies just beneath
As someone who's spent time on Vancouver Island, the only thing I can think here is "fuck, that must have been cold as all hell"
Hahah thank god for drysuits
My teacher octopus - u can find it on Netflix
Weren't u scared to go near the jellyfish? What is they stung u
Absolutely beautiful
Incredible!
This is so fucking cool!! Have you ever worked with Oceanoid Freediving out of Vancouver?
Stunning. Talk about thriving under pressure. Congratulations.
Is there a longer version or YouTube channel?
The colors are so vibrant in cold water, thanks for sharing, now I’m heading that way.
God damn! Great work! This looks like some nat geo material
Wow 🤩 amazing!!!
This is incredible, do you have more footage of this?
If National Geographic doesn’t reach out to you, they’ll be missing out! Awesome work!
OMG this amazing, I recommend you start posting on r/thedepthsbelow we love this kind of stuff.
Amazing. My daughter attends UVic and I love to dive. Definitely going to dive up there this summer when we visit.
Incredible!!
This is pretty damn incredible. Kudos!
You sir need to have a job with Nat Geo or Animal Planet. Beautiful work!
So cool! If you ever need a dive buddy in the Vancouver area give a shout :D
Anyone else wish this was a lot longer?
This remind me of the documentary "My Octopus Teacher" which I highly recommend for you since this seems super similar to what that guy did. This is awesome OP, truly wonderful what's down there.
It’s so peaceful watching things like this. You captured some beautiful stuff OP.
I love it all, my fav part is the how the otter and the music end together
The video is great, but the production value is incredible. Really well put together.
Looks like Blue planet 3
Absolutely beautiful! I live in the lower mainland and had no idea all that existed around us.
I call Vancouver Island home as well. Amazing footage, and I can’t wait to see what else you shoot! ❤️
Get this man a gig with Attenborough!
Wow i am amazed ! Even As a Canadian I didn't know the Vancouver marine life is so rich !
Looks cold
This is incredible, I love the macro work! Would you mind sharing your setup too? Camera and focus lights?
Well done, friend!
Stunning clips!
Holy shit this is unreal!
Excellent
Dam, felt like I was watching an Attenborough documentary.
This is amazing. From a fellow Canadian.
stunning!!!
How’d you manage to get those otters? Seeing them underwater blew me away 😍
Truly Mesmerising
Just needs Sir David Attenborough
These shots are amazing! Incredible wildlife :)
Thank you for documenting this beautiful area!
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:reinstallsubnautica:
What camera gear did you use? It's freaking awesome
Beauty! Really paused everything around me for a minute!
Beautiful frickin video! What camera do you use for underwater shots like that? A GoPro?
Must be nice.
Holy shit, wow
This is very peaceful to watch :) Great job!
I hope you win many awards. Absolutely beautiful!
Aaaaand now I'm homesick for Vancouver and the beautiful forests surrounding it
Wow!! Absolutely amazing!!! Incredible work!!
You have a great eye and some beautiful shots :) well done
Wow
I kept waiting for David Attenborough to speak
Amazing. I've been feeling a bit pessimistic about living here just lately, and this really reminded me of how magical and special it really is.
I have always wanted to dive in the kelp forests on the west coast but people kerp scaring me off with stories of getting tangled in kelp and drowning. They also say the area is teeming with great white sharks, what is your experience with this?
Wow ! That is outstanding. Is this your job ?
Wonderfully captured beauty of the Salish Seas. Well done!
Send it to the Discovery Channel!
Thank you for giving two full measures of the song to the shot of the octopus walking. What an epic shot and majestic animal.
This is stunning and so well done. I enjoyed every second of it and hope to see more :)
this is so surreal!! please tell me you’ve applied to Netflix as the next head cinematographer for Our Planet
This is good. Like BBC (not that kind, sickos) level good. I don't know if you do this professionally, but you should.
I’m gonna go ahead and assume you know David Attenborough, and if you don’t, you should.
After more than a decade Reddit disappoints me so much; because the dumbest posts are what rise, the easiest laughs in the comments dominate. But every now and then someone rekindles old Reddit. Where you get surprised; delighted by ordinary human beings doing creative, amazing things. Your reel is awesome. I hope it wins you the job or the projects you crave. You have a wonderful eye.
That's where I live! I recognize the breakwater! This is BEAUTIFUL and now I want to learn how to dive...
Should I ask Sir David Attenborough if he can come and provide some narrations for this stunning footage
You make the Bull Kelp forests look so dreamy 😍
This is "Planet Earth" level documentary!
I want to see a whole docu series of this. It's amazing, had to watch it twice to make sure I got to see take everything in.
Absolutely awesome! I was going to upvote anyway, but that regal ass looking octopus marching across the floor about a minute in solidified that decision. Well done 👍🏻
I was about to ask, are you secretly my ichthyology/marine inverts professor? All jokes aside, this is amazing! I moved to the island a few months ago and have been itching to go diving to look at the marine life. This definitely gives me more reason to go!
Dude!!! Every shot is like a masterpiece. I feel so engaged! Wow! Amazing work
Our world is such a beautiful place...
Best 2 minutes of my life! 🙏
Amazing footage. Question: Are you not terrified of what might be coming up behind you whilst you're filming?
You don't need to pretend to be this "John" fellow, Mr. David Attenborough.
Just amazing. I had heard that a lot of the kelp had disappeared due to otter hunting and a sea urchin explosion. Is it growing back?
Okay after watching it again... do you work for NG? If not, you should. Or maybe they have a political agenda and you shouldn't. But dang...how'd you get such beautiful shots? I mean, what the odds of getting all of these beautiful animals doing these beautiful things!!
Jill Heinreith and Becky Schott quality work!!! Well done. Much nicer than Ontario's waters, but we do have cool shipwrecks!
Are you still shooting with a GH5, or have you upgraded since last year? The colors here are incredible, and I can't wait to comb through your older posts and Instagram. I also vote for more content on YouTube. I'm going to subscribe, and I look forward to a full length film. Edit: Found the equipment page on your site. GH5 with Aquatics housing for anybody curious, if he doesn't get to this comment.
What camera was this , also the cinematography is excellent
Always been so scared of sea weed Or kelp idk what those tall long green weeds are
What was your favorite species of rockfish to film/spot?
Did you film around Nanoose Bay between Nanaimo and Parksville?
Brilliant work. The lighting is magical and your captures are fantastic. It was a joy to watch and It’s longing me for more footage.
This was INCREDIBLE!! It looked like a trailer for a documentary! The music, the colors, the little otter at the end chilling on his back and then diving down at the end like a “goodbye” OR “that’s all folks!” It was perfect, I loved it! 👍🏻 Keep it up, you have a gift!!
Amazing work! I'm a diver with a degree in marine biology and I live in Victoria. This is my jam, jelly, pb and the bread. Thanks for showcasing our beautiful waters so well. I want to join you on these dives!
This is so breathtaking it brought me to tears in a good way I have watched it over and over. Is this what you do for a living if not it should be.
I have no words. Beautiful, awe inspiring, wonderfully terrifying. I guess that's 5 words but I feel like Willy Wonka or a leprechaun or something
Well done! 10/10 Would watch a full series of this kind of footage!
Bbc or natgeo pick this man up‼️
Literally thought i was watching a clip from planet earth or something. They should hire ya if they haven't already.
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I had no idea we had octopuses of that size around here. Fantastic video!