DIVE IN™ · Charleston, South Carolina
Your child, weightless.
Underwater portrait sessions and museum-quality artwork for your walls. Photographed in Charleston since 2013.
Request a SessionUnderwater portraits of your children, made as fine art
I'm Leigh Webber, an underwater portrait photographer in Charleston, SC. I created DIVE IN in 2013, and since then I have photographed more than 225 families in the water. Every session ends in the same place: a finished piece of art on your wall.
There is a moment, usually around minute twenty, when a child stops performing and simply exists in the water. Hair suspended. Face open. No held breath, no posing, no thinking about the camera.
That moment is the entire point of DIVE IN. Everything else, the two hours, the retouching, the consultation, the framing, exists to make that moment possible and then to put it on your wall at a size that does it justice.
- A two hour session in the water, unhurried, built around play rather than poses
- A private online gallery of your images
- Advanced artistic retouching on every frame you select
- A design consultation in your home, with samples and a tape measure
- An artwork credit toward the piece or pieces you choose
- A digital collection of your selected images
Your child does not need to be a strong swimmer. Some of the best sessions have started with a child who would not put her face in the water. We build up to it. That is what the two hours are for.
The experience
Three parts
One
The Session
Two hours at the pool. We talk before we shoot, so I know your children's names, what makes them laugh, and what makes them nervous. Then we get in and play. I direct very little. Most of my job is patience.
Sessions are photographed in Charleston. Travel fees may apply for destinations more than 250 miles away.
Two
The Gallery
Your images arrive in a private online gallery, retouched. You look at them without me in the room and without anyone asking you to decide anything.
Three
The Design Consultation
This is where the artwork gets chosen, and it is included. I come to you with print samples, frame corners and a tape measure, and I tape the actual dimensions onto your wall so you can see the scale instead of guessing at it.
If you are building or renovating, send me the floor plans and elevations and I will lay the pieces onto them at true scale before a single wall is up.
From styling consultation to shoot day, everything was handled with such professionalism. Leigh transformed my shy daughter from nervous to confident in minutes.
Jennifer, Sullivans Island
The difference
What you are actually buying
Fine art, not files
Every session is planned around the artwork it will become. You also receive a digital collection of your selected images, but the framed piece in your home is the reason we get in the water.
Museum grade materials
Each indoor piece is a fine art print mounted under crystal clear acrylic in a hand finished floating frame. It arrives signed and ready to hang, made to outlast all of us. Unframed prints on museum grade paper, custom albums and aluminum prints for covered outdoor spaces are also available.
Designed for your home
Artwork gets chosen for a room, not from a screen. After your session I come to you with print samples, frame corners and a tape measure, and we decide size and placement standing in front of the wall. If you are building or renovating, send me the floor plans and I will lay the pieces onto them at true scale.
Children, not poses
Your children play. Nobody poses and nobody holds a smile. I am in the water with them, and most of my job is patience. They need to be comfortable in the water, not strong swimmers.
The artwork
What you actually keep
Every session ends in artwork made for your walls. These are the forms it can take.
Framed acrylic fine art prints
The signature piece. A fine art print mounted under crystal clear acrylic in a hand finished floating frame, signed and ready to hang.
Fine art paper prints
Unframed prints on archival Hahnemühle fine art paper, for framing your own way.
Custom albums
Designed albums in two sizes, 10 x 10 and 12 x 12, that hold the full story of your session.
Aluminum prints
Made for covered outdoor spaces such as a pool house or a screened porch.
Custom sizes available on request.
Almost everyone goes smaller than they should. Artwork should occupy two thirds to three quarters of the wall above a piece of furniture. Before your consultation, put painter's tape on the wall at 30x45 and live with it for a day. It will look smaller than the number sounds.
Watching my children move freely underwater, hair floating, expressions pure joy, was incredibly emotional. We created a gallery wall with three acrylic pieces that have become the heart of our home.
Michelle, Ponte VedraWho this is for
Is this for your family?
Worth being direct, so nobody's time gets wasted.
This is for you if
You want a significant piece of art in your home and you would rather commission it than buy it off a gallery wall. If the photograph of your children is the thing you would grab in a fire. If you have a wall you have been staring at for two years.
This is probably not for you if
You are looking for a standard portrait session and a folder of files. That is a real thing to want, and there are wonderful photographers in Charleston who do it beautifully. It is not what DIVE IN is.
Questions
Questions families ask
Does my child need to be a strong swimmer?
No. Comfortable in water, yes. Strong swimmer, no. We build up to going under, and plenty of sessions start with a child who does not want to put her face in.
What ages work best?
I have photographed toddlers through teenagers. There is no bad age, but children change fast, and the most common thing I hear a year later is some version of "I wish we had done it sooner."
How long does it take?
Two hours in the water. We use all of it. There is no rush and no clock-watching.
Where do you shoot?
Charleston. Travel fees may apply for destinations more than 250 miles from Charleston.
What if my child is nervous?
Then we have two hours to fix that, which is usually more than enough. Nervous children often produce the best frames, because the moment they relax is visible.
What do we do about a wall we do not have yet?
Nothing. If you are building or renovating, we choose and size the piece from your plans and it waits in the box until the wall exists. The photograph is the permanent decision. The wall is a temporary one.
When can we shoot?
The season runs early summer through late September. After September the water is too cold to shoot the way I shoot, and a cold child tenses in every frame. When you request a session, tell me roughly when you are thinking and I will come back with dates.