Underwater Photographer Career: Salary, Skills, and How to Get Started

How do you build a successful photography career in the age of smartphones and AI? In this episode of How Much Can I Make?, photographer Caroline White shares how she turned photography into a thriving business, from personal branding and online dating photos to her signature underwater maternity photography.

We discuss what professional photographers really earn, how photography pricing works, how to attract clients, and what it takes to stand out in a competitive creative industry. Caroline also takes us behind the scenes of underwater photography, revealing the equipment, training, and techniques required to create the dreamlike images that have become her specialty.

And if you're interested in other creative careers, visit how much can I make that info and explore our creative careers category. 

Connect with Caroline:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolinewfineart/

website: https://carolinewhitephotography.com/

"How Much Can I Make?" Is nominated for 2026 Women in Podcasting Award!

Music credit: Kate Pierson & Monica Nation

Visit howmuchcanimake.info

Transcript

Cold Open On Dating Photos

SPEAKER_01 0:02

But it's really fun doing the online dating photos for people. My concept is that wherever that person is, there just happen to be a professional photographer there who just happened to get that one photo of them coming out of yoga or at a bar at a party or at a wedding like reception or whatever.

Meet Caroline White

Mirav Ozeri - Host 0:20

Welcome back to How Much Can I Make, the podcast about jobs and careers. I'm your host, Miravozeri. My guest today is Caroline White, a professional photographer who turned her passion for storytelling into a thriving business. She shoots corporate work, personal branding, and family portraits. But what really caught my attention is her stunning underwater photography. From eternity portraits that look like fine art to dreamlike images that float somewhere between reality and fantasy. You can see her photographs on her website or Instagram account. The links are in the show notes. Don't miss it, they're really amazing. Let's turn to Caroline and find out how she carved out a one-of-a-kind niche in a brutally competitive industry and also how much can she make.

Acting Roots And First Paid Shoots

Mirav Ozeri - Host 1:13

First of all, tell me how did you become a photographer?

SPEAKER_01 1:17

How I became a professional photographer was that I came to LA in 2005 to be an actor. And I was very lucky I started working in commercials right away and making good money. And as soon as I had enough money, I was like, I'm getting a camera, I'm gonna take the headshots of all the actors in my acting class and put up a website because I'd been wanting to be a headshot photographer of actors for as long as I'd really been an actor.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 1:46

So you always were attracted to photography. So what kind of photography do you do? I saw a variety of things on your website.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

There's what I do and there's what I sell and market. Basically, I shoot everything except for weddings. I do not shoot weddings. I mostly do personal branding for entrepreneurs. I do underwater, I do maternity, I do video, and the underwater thing I added in 2021. So that's a newer, more exciting, sexier niche that I've that I've Yeah, and I want to talk about it.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 2:17

But before, did you have to go to school or did you are you self-taught?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

I'm self-taught. I have a degree in acting, which is it's the most useful and the least useful degree all at the same time. Yes, I can imagine. I feel like actors can do anything, but also the degree is so worthless. Yeah, I'm self-taught. I took a couple of dark room classes, but it's it's in my blood. I wouldn't be a photographer if my great aunt wasn't in my in the ether, in the DNA, in the family conversations.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 2:48

Why? Was she a photographer?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Yeah, Margaret Burke White was uh one of the biggest photographers way back in the day. She did the first cover of Life magazine in 1936. She she photographed Gandhi, the Holocaust. She died in 1971. I was born in 1981. So when I first started taking people's pictures, like when I first started making money, I was so insecure about how new I was to it. So when people would say, How long have you been doing this? I would say, Do you believe in reincarnation? Because I didn't want to talk about the fact that I have only been getting paid to do this for like two months. There goes the dog.

How Did You Start The Business?

Mirav Ozeri - Host 3:24

At what point did you realize you can make it a business?

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Um pretty quickly, I would say it was a side business for the first seven years because I was still doing acting, so I was I was split 50-50 between acting and photography. And then in 2011, I had a burglary. I and they took my life's work, they took all my archives. I didn't have cloud storage back in 2011. Cloud storage wasn't quite a fully integrated thing. So I lost all my equipment, no insurance, and that's when I decided, you know what, I think I'm done with acting. And I said to myself, let me do an experiment. Let me put myself, throw myself into photography for a full year, and then see at the end of that year if it's viable. So, what was the first gig you had that was also the year that I joined B School top by Marie Forlio, and she became a client, and that's how I fell into photographing all these women entrepreneurs for online marketing and coaches. I took her course, and I I don't think I even got through a quarter of the course, and just I fell into that community at the right time, but I also had the skills as well. It was like this just confluence of luck meeting opportunity meeting skill and those lucky moments. And I actually had photographed Marie's assistant who was an actor, and she was like, Oh, Carolyn, she bought my biggest package at the time, and she was like, Carolyn, you should really photograph women entrepreneurs. And I was like, Oh, there's not enough of them. I've already done like 10, there's not that many. And she's like, No, you're so wrong. It's a billion-dollar industry, you don't know what you're talking about. I was like, No, it's not. And then I, even though I poo-pooed her suggestion, I still ended up falling into it, so that she had a vision for how meant for that track I was. Shout out to Louise Flory, God bless

The Spark Behind Underwater Work

SPEAKER_01 5:14

her.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 5:14

So, from shooting women entrepreneur, how did you get to underwater photography? How did this come about?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

I think I saw an episode of F-Stoppers, which is like a podcast YouTube for photographers. And I saw a photographer that was doing underwater shoots, and she was like putting brass-framed beds and musical instruments and creating these really magical worlds, and I just remember being like, I want to do that one day. I don't know when, I don't know how, but that that really stuck in my brain when I would daydream. I would keep going back to that, one day I'm gonna do that. And eventually I did. It took a long time to get there.

Escape, Romance, And The Cosmic Look

Mirav Ozeri - Host 5:52

So you're mostly doing pregnancy and delivery underwater, or no, no deliveries. No deliveries. Okay, just so underwater photography is very cinematic, it's emotional. I see people responding emotionally to it. What is it that you try to achieve in the underwater photography?

SPEAKER_01 6:10

I think for me, the underwater work that I do, for me personally, is all about escape. Escaping this crazy world we live in, escaping the mundane, but it's also about romance. When there's a black background, it's very cosmic and outer space. You know, when you're under the surface, the surface above you becomes a mirror. And so if somebody is floating with their with their face above the water and you turn the photo, it looks like they're looking through that mirror in the matrix that becomes liquid and they're going through a portal. When you do underwater, you rent a pool, you have a pool. I've done it in the ocean, but definitely the pool, it would only photograph people in the ocean who were like super ultra divers, surfers, ultra ultra super water people, but the pool is awesome. Um, I rent pools and then I have a housing that I put my camera in that locks it all in and seals it and has all these crazy buttons and stuff. And I used to uh hold my breath on shoots, but now I have this special breathing machine that's so I don't miss any shots.

Gear, Pools, Breath, And Letting Go

Mirav Ozeri - Host 7:16

Oh, yeah, because yeah, well this is what I wonder. What's the biggest challenge of shooting underwater?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

When I do personal branding photography, I am like setting every piece of fabric, every prop, every angle, like every pose is like set, and with underwater it's completely different. You have to let go, the fabrics are flowing, the hair is going, the there's always a slight current in the pool because of the filter. It's really subtle, but if you just float there for a minute or two, you will start to drift or turn.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 7:46

So, how did you build that niche of maternity underwater?

SPEAKER_01 7:51

I guess because I've been working with mostly women for such a long time, and I think the pool is like evocative of being in the womb, floating in this warm. I try to rent saltwater pools, I try to heat them really well so it's really cozy and very like safe and inviting, and to me it's very much feels like sort of womb.

The Challenges Behind The Scene

Mirav Ozeri - Host 8:11

The heating of the water is interesting. So, what other things would you say that people wouldn't think about the underwater photography? What are the challenges and the uh behind the scene that people will be surprised to hear?

SPEAKER_01 8:24

This is interesting. I was afraid of the water. What? I was not good at swimming, I was not good at diving, I took lots of lessons and trainings, and most underwater photographers they start as just water babies and surfers and badass water people and mermaids, and then they just pick up a camera and they're like, cool. I was very much the opposite. It took a lot of practice and training and meditating and healing. But because of that, I am uniquely suited to working with people that have nerves or inexperience in the water. I've had clients who can't float at all, can't dog paddle, can't hold their breath at all. And they have in they still had a positive experience because I am very much in touch with any nervousness. But what's interesting to me is that some of the harder people to photograph are these badass world-class swimmers because they're so used to working hard in the water and they're not used to relaxing in the water. So they they're diving and they're making these blowfish faces and they're working really hard and they're huffing and puffing, and I'm like, forget all of your athletic water stuff.

What Underwater Packages Cost

Mirav Ozeri - Host 9:32

You also shoot portraits. We're gonna talk about it. Does the underwater photography pay more than the regular, like corporate shots or portraits?

SPEAKER_01 9:42

They're about the same, they're pretty similar. It depends on what package people get. If I'm shooting a big group corporate, that's gonna be more than like shooting one person in the water. Uh really.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 9:53

How much would it cost me if I want underwater pictures of myself? What would it cost me?

SPEAKER_01 9:57

I would give you a deal. No, uh my smallest package for underwater starts at $2,500. That includes handmade a piece of artwork.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 10:06

What do you mean handmade piece of artwork?

SPEAKER_01 10:09

So, what I'll do is I'll choose my favorite photo and I'll print it onto matte paper, and then I'll paint on top of it. So it's like a paint, it's like half painting. I had a client who she had a scarf from her late mother, this beautiful silk scarf, and she was like, I really want to incorporate this scarf into the chute, but I don't want to put it in the water because it's so precious. So what I did was I did a double exposure with the photos of her underwater and then photographed the fabric on land and combined those in posts.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 10:36

So that in it it's included in the 2500. And how many pictures do they get? That includes, of course, the pool and everything you pay for everything.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

That includes the pool, and I have a collection of fabrics and dresses and flat fake flowers, and I I have a whole bunch of props and outfits and stuff, but I work with people to figure out what they want to wear and what they want to bring and what fabrics work in the water. Uh the smallest package usually includes about 20 images, so it's not a small amount of images.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 11:06

Nice, nice. And it includes some video as well. This is what I want my next question. You said you're doing video.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

You should video on the water as well. Yeah, I've been doing this my whole, I guess my branding career has been about 14-15 years. I've always just switched back and forth on the same camera between video and photo. What whether I'm on land or water with people, I'll say to them, that was great. Let's do that again because I want to get the stills of that, and I just did the video and I wanted the So I'll have people repeat what they're doing a bunch of times, and then they'll start to feel more confident, and I'll be getting the close-ups, the wide shots, the verticals, the horizontals. What was the most difficult underwater shoot you had? Early on, it was really cold. The heater on the pool didn't work. Fortunately, I was shooting a portfolio shoot, it wasn't a client. So when it was really cold and I was holding my breath, that was really hard. Oh my gosh. And I don't need people to hold their breath for more than 10 seconds. 10 seconds is a long breath hold. I can get a ton of photos in 10 seconds.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 12:12

And did you have an underwater shoot that went completely wrong?

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Oh, there was a shoot where I forgot a piece of equipment. Again, it was a portfolio shoot, and I had this guy, this male swimmer, he this beautiful model. And I didn't bring part of the equipment I needed, so I ended up photographing him. He was in the pool still, and I just got on a really tall chair and I shot all these bird's eye view pictures of him in the water, but I couldn't get in the water, and I actually really love that shoot.

How She Prices For Different Markets

Mirav Ozeri - Host 12:42

I want to get back to the money before I want to talk to I want to talk to you about your portrait photography. But let's you said $2,500 for a package. How do you know? How did you decide how to price your your work?

SPEAKER_01 12:54

It's really hard. Every market is different. People and one thing I encourage photographers, I used to coach photographers on the side a little bit, and I was always telling them, I know you live in Bumblefuck, but like you've got to like make yourself an established photographer in whatever the largest, nearest city is where people where there's some people who are willing to spend. Get in the car and drive three hours if you need to, or even get on a plane and just work that price into your packages, because what happens to a lot of the photographers in really small towns is they have to work in volume. They can't charge as much, but there's also not enough people. So it's like so big cities really are great places for photographers to make a decent living and charge a decent rate.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 13:39

And But how did you come up with $2,500 for the package?

SPEAKER_01 13:43

That was kind of based off of what people had been paying for my personal branding packages, and I kind of I kind of just did the math on like because underwater shoots take a lot more prep work and postwork and also a lot more for me they required a lot more training and just more equipment.

Why Pros Beat Friend Photos

Mirav Ozeri - Host 14:00

I saw on your website on your video that you said that if you take a good image, portrait, it could change your career or could change your trajectory. I want you to speak about that.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

It's like a cliche, but y a picture is worth a thousand words. As people's attention spans get shorter and shorter, the photos and the videos, like even a few seconds of video, become more important.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 14:23

I'm asking because everybody is a photographer today. They have the camera in their pocket. So they can ask their friends to take a bunch of shots. What makes it different when they come to you and pay you the money? You shoot everything outside, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:37

No, I have a studio base in Los Angeles, and I rent studio spaces in San Diego and Orange County for personal branding and corporate and and then I shoot in pools for underwater maternity, but uh but I also go to hotels and people's homes and Airbnbs and I go to Chicago and Paris and New York.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 14:54

So what do you think makes the difference when you take the photograph rather than the girlfriend?

SPEAKER_01 15:01

It's a lot of different factors. It's lighting, it's the lens, it's the styling, it's the emotion, it's the gesture, the movement. I'm really big on expression, and so I'm constantly like moving around, working with people to try to get both the most beautiful expression, but also the most attractive expression, and there's all sorts of posing tricks. And generally speaking, like when your friends take your picture, you're like stiff, you're holding a pose for a really long time. I really like taking people through a flow of different poses, but also trying to surprise them and trying to make them laugh and trying to get them out of their heads, so giving them things to engage in, whether that's like an idea or a prop or a pose or a movement, a twirl. Honestly, the big trick is that I take a ton of photos. And you pick the best. Yeah, that that is the number one, especially with portrait. Do you have to bring a makeup artist with you? I used to be really strict about requiring a makeup artist, and then COVID put a wrench in that, and I kind of figured out look, everybody kind of learned to do their makeup themselves during COVID because they couldn't have a makeup artist right in their face. So I'm flexible whether people want to use one of my makeup artists, one of their makeup artists, or do their own. I feel like with social media, people have gotten so good at doing their own and they're so particular.

AI, Authenticity, And Online Dating Photos

Mirav Ozeri - Host 16:16

So I just saw a documentary about all the stuff that AI is doing online. Do you see that as a threat? Because what prevents somebody from putting their face on some amazing underwater picture or uh have AI design a portrait for themselves? It's a big competition and threat on photographers, no?

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Yeah, I don't think the technology is there yet. There's a few photographers I do follow that seem to use AI seamlessly, but it's a really small group. And when the average Joe goes onto AI and says, put my face on this, it looks terrible. It looks so bad. I don't need to photograph everybody if a bunch of people are doing that. Those probably weren't my clients to begin with, because I think my clients really value authenticity, but they also just want the experience of like being seen and having this experience, whether it's a portrait shoot or a family shoot or underwater, especially if it's a maternity shoot. No one is doing AI maternity shoots because I think it's probably it's probably bad luck to do that.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 17:22

What is the most request you get for photography? Is it underwater? Is it the portrait? Is it what's your the biggest one that's the hottest area for you now? I would actually say personal branding and online dating photos. What? They come to you and tell you I wanted something for dating?

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Yeah, both men and women. Yeah. And I love doing it. That's actually one of my favorite things because I think it's really exciting to help people in their business and help them make money, but it's like it's not quite as juicy as one of my clients. She likes credits me as being a big part of like why she found her soulmate. And that just like that just gets me so I'm crying. I'm already crying. But it's really fun doing the online dating photos for people because I talk to them about okay, like what's your lifestyle? What activities do you do? Like, where do you go? And then we kind of try to do a day in the life. So we'll go to the beach or the farmer's market or we'll go to a fancy bar when the lights are getting low, and I get very into the outfits. I have a whole philosophy of online dating photos, and okay, this is my philosophy. Because you don't want your online dating photos to look too posed or too professional. It's fine if your professional photos are like, I'm a lawyer and I'm sitting in front of my desk and welcoming you into my office. But for the online dating photos, my concept is that wherever that person is, there just happen to be a professional photographer there who just happen to get that one photo of them coming out of yoga or at a bar at a party or at a wedding like reception or whatever. I like to do a lot of photos where people aren't looking directly at the camera. They're being caught off guard a little bit and they're like, oh, I didn't see you there.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 19:01

So you have the package for the 2500, that's the lowest package, right? For underwater, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

And for portraits? For portrait, it's actually it's 3500, but they get hundreds of photos because they need those for social media and like all the different seasons and stuff.

SEO Marketing And Platform Shifts

SPEAKER_01 19:18

How do you market yourself? The name of the game is really all about SEO these days. That's really what the name of the game has become. It used to be I've gone through I've been a pro photographer for 21 years, and it's always gone through phases. In 2007-8, all my clients came through Yelp. I haven't gotten a client off of Yelp in over 10 years. Uh the last few years it's been Google, for a few years it was Facebook, it was Instagram a while back for me, email newsletters for a while. There's been these kind of trends of like how clients find me, and it seems to like I'll have a trend that goes for a while and then it'll start to die, and I'll say, Okay, we need to figure out what is the next thing. And obviously the next thing is like having ChatGPT say, This is who you pick. I'm like literally asking ChatGPT, how do I get you to recommend me?

Post-COVID Rebuild And Real Rewards

Mirav Ozeri - Host 20:10

What would you say if you're looking back at your career, what was the biggest challenge?

SPEAKER_01 20:15

I would say I kind of had a big dip after COVID and had to rebuild after that, and I kind of had a big chip on my shoulder because I've been doing this for so long. Rebuilding post-COVID was harder than rebuilding after my burglary. Wow. Yeah. What was your biggest reward? I had a recent maternity client who said that the video that I did made her cry. The money is great, but like really the acknowledgement and the appreciation you can't put a price on. When clients make me cry by how happy they are from something I've made with them when they return like many times, like that just makes like warms my heart.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 20:53

Do you find yourself working all the time, seven days a week, because you work for yourself?

SPEAKER_01 20:58

I can't tell. I it's so hard to tell because I'll go to like a photography museum exhibit, and I'm like, does that count as work? I had three gallery shows in the past year, and that was like a departure from my normal work, and that was like a detour, and but I don't know if that really counts as like photography or if that's like more of an artist. How big the prints were in the gallery? Oh my god, some of them were 48 by 30 inches. A whole bunch of them were really big. Oh wow, nice. Yeah.

Quickfire Favorites And Wrap-Up

Mirav Ozeri - Host 21:25

I have some quick questions. Uh one celebrity or public figure you would love to photograph.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Oh gosh. Oh man, there's so many. Sigourney Weaver. Oh, okay. I would love to get her in the water. Oh, that would be nice. I think she'd be amazing at it. Yeah. Favorite city to shoot in? Havana. Havana.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 21:46

Hopefully we'll be able to go back there.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

I've been I've been a bunch of times. I used to lead trips there before the pandemic. And took pictures there? Yeah, I did six trips there, six years in a row. Best light, sunrise or sunset? Oh, sunset. I am not a morning person at all. You're gonna have to pay me a lot to get up for the sunrise. Black and white or color?

SPEAKER_00 22:06

It depends. Oh, don't make me choose. This is like this is no, this is the hardest. I can't choose. Don't make me choose.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 22:13

Okay. One photo you wish you had taken in history.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

I have to say Gandhi at the spinning wheel, which is by my great aunt. She actually took it the day he was assassinated, but Life magazine decided to not run it in association with his assassination. They held on to it for later. But that was taken the day he was assassinated.

Mirav Ozeri - Host 22:36

Wow. One word that uh describes underwater photography. Meditative. Interesting. Okay, last one. Finish the sentence. A great photographer should be open. Cool. All right. So fun. That was so good. I want to remind our audience that they can look at your amazing pictures on your website and it's in the show notes. Really, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you so much. That's it for today. And if you're interested in other creative careers, visit how much can I make that info and explore our creative careers category. You'll discover what different jobs are really like, how to break into the field, what skills you need, and how much you can earn. And you'll be able to make an informed career decision. I will see you next week with another episode of How Much Can I Make.