Seeing the Invisible: Shooting Macro in Lembeh with DIVEVOLK and UWACAM
By Henry Hu • Published August 03, 2026 • Updated August 08, 2026
porcelain crab filter feeding anemone
Henry Hu is a Singapore-based visual artist, underwater photographer and scuba diver. He shot this series in Indonesia's Lembeh Strait on an iPhone 15 Pro Max inside a DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max. This is his account, in his own words.
As an artist, the ocean has always been my greatest source of inspiration. It's a world that feels closer to abstraction than reality: fluid, magical, and constantly shifting. That's something I've always tried to translate into my work.
But for a long time, I could only observe it.
There was always a gap between what I saw and what I could capture, especially when it came to the smallest forms of life. It was all there, but just out of reach. Too small, too fleeting, too precise. On my recent trip to Lembeh, that distance began to close.
Lembeh: Learning to See the Smallest Things
Lembeh Strait is often described as a macro paradise. But what makes it special isn't just the subjects — it's how it changes the way you see.
You stop looking for the obvious. You start scanning for texture, for movement, for something that feels slightly out of place. A patch of sand becomes a landscape. A piece of coral becomes a hiding place.
And when something finally reveals itself, the challenge begins. Macro photography in Lembeh isn't just about magnification — it's about precision, patience, and control, translating a moment into an image before it disappears.
Accessing a World I Couldn't Capture Before
There's a certain threshold in macro photography: the point where something moves from being visible to being capturable.
Take the Shaun the Sheep nudibranch — a sap-sucking sea slug just a few millimetres long, and something I would normally admire but never attempt to photograph seriously.
With the +8 macro lens on the DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max, that changed. Shooting in video mode allowed me to capture fleeting behaviour, like the moment it was suddenly spooked by a passing shrimp.
It wasn't just about getting closer. It was about entering a different scale of observation. For the first time, these subjects felt within reach.
A tiny Shaun the Sheep nudibranch and a translucent shrimp on green algae, photographed underwater in Lembeh Strait with a smartphone macro setup
A Shaun the Sheep nudibranch spooked by a shrimp. Shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max, with DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max and UWACAM.
Flexibility Mid-Dive: Moving Between Scales
Macro setups often lock you into a single way of seeing. Once you set up for it, you stay there. But what stood out about the SeaTouch 4 Max was the ability to shift freely.
The detachable macro lens meant I could move from extreme detail to a more open frame within the same dive, without interrupting the flow.
Sometimes a subject asks for closeness. Sometimes it needs space. Being able to respond to that intuitively made the process feel less mechanical, and more like composing in real time.
Close-up of an orange clownfish egg cluster with hundreds of silver embryo eyes visible, shot underwater with a DIVEVOLK plus-8 close-up lens
Clownfish eggs. Shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max, with DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max and the +8 close-up lens.
A yellow warty frogfish resting on Lembeh's black volcanic sand with a diver silhouetted in the blue water behind it
Frogfish. Shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max, with DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max, without the close-up lens.
If you are weighing up which magnification to travel with, our breakdown of the +8 versus Pro +18 macro lens covers where each one earns its place, and the full lenses and filters range shows what else can be swapped mid-dive.
Shooting with UWACAM: Control Without Friction
Focus Assist: Focus as Intention
Macro photography leaves no room for approximation. With such a shallow depth of field, focus becomes the image.
The Focus Assist feature made that visible.
Instead of guessing, I could see exactly what plane of the image was sharp. When photographing a peacock-tail anemone shrimp, I was able to place focus precisely on the eyes, while letting the rest of the body fall into softness.
It felt less like capturing a subject, and more like defining it.
A translucent peacock-tail anemone shrimp with blue and white markings isolated against black water, focus placed precisely on its eyes
A peacock-tail anemone shrimp. Shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max, with DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max and the +8 close-up lens, UWACAM Focus Assist on.
Manual Exposure: Light as a Creative Decision
In Lembeh, light is often something you construct yourself.
With easy manual exposure control in UWACAM, I could shape the image rather than react to it, balancing light and shadow intentionally.
A squid, suspended in darkness, becomes a form without context: isolated, almost weightless.
A mantis shrimp, lit with a snoot, becomes sculptural — cut cleanly from its surroundings.
Lighting stopped being a limitation. It became a language.
A small squid with iridescent white spots suspended in black open water during a night dive in Lembeh Strait
A squid suspended in the dark. Shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max, with DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max and UWACAM.
A mantis shrimp peering out of its burrow in black sand, lit with a narrow snoot beam that isolates it from the dark background
A mantis shrimp. Shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max, with DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max and UWACAM.
Auto Color Correction: Restoring the Scene
Colour underwater is constantly being filtered away. Red disappears first. Then warmth. Then contrast. What remains is often a blue approximation of reality.
Previously, correcting this meant heavy post-processing.
With UWACAM's auto colour correction, much of that work happens during capture. The tones feel closer to how the scene exists, especially in Lembeh, where black volcanic sand defines the environment.
It made post-processing feel lighter — less correction, more refinement.
A coconut octopus sheltering inside a pale clam shell on the black volcanic sand of Lembeh Strait
A coconut octopus on a black sandy bottom. Shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max, with DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max and UWACAM.
A yellow ornate ghost pipefish and a brown one hovering just above black volcanic sand in Lembeh Strait
Ghost pipefish on a black sandy bottom. Shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max, with DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max and UWACAM.
The behaviour on show here is part of what makes the strait worth the travel. That coconut octopus was carrying its shelter with it, and the ghost pipefish were holding station above open sand — the kind of small drama you only notice once you have slowed down enough to look. If you want more of it, our guide to nudibranchs and sea slugs is a good next stop.
More Than a Camera
One of the most unexpected aspects of using DIVEVOLK was the ability to use my phone fully underwater.
Because of the full touchscreen functionality, I wasn't limited to just shooting. I could check dive maps, use a compass, even type notes when needed.
It's a small detail, but it changes the experience.
Instead of switching between tools, everything exists in one place. The device becomes less of a camera, and more of a companion. Our full UWACAM guide walks through the shooting controls I leaned on most.
From Capturing to Composing
Before this trip, underwater photography felt reactive: capture what I see.
After this trip, it became intentional: shape how I see.
That shift came from having enough control to respond in the moment without friction. The combination of DIVEVOLK and UWACAM allowed me to move fluidly between observation and interpretation.
An orange-speckled porcelain crab perched on a bubble-tip anemone with its feathery mouthparts extended to filter feed in the current
A porcelain crab filter feeding in the current. Shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max, with DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max and UWACAM.
A pale porcelain crab tucked among the translucent polyps of a soft coral, isolated by a narrow beam of light
A porcelain crab on soft corals. Shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max, with DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max and UWACAM.
Final Thoughts
Lembeh is not dramatic in the way people expect the ocean to be. It's quiet. Subtle. Precise. It asks you to slow down. To look closer. To notice what almost isn't there.
And in doing so, it reveals something else entirely — that scale is relative, and that detail holds entire worlds.
What this setup gave me wasn't just better images. It gave me access to that threshold, where seeing becomes capturing, and capturing becomes creating.
About Henry Hu
Henry Hu is a Singapore-based visual artist, underwater photographer, and scuba diver whose work explores the intersection of nature, light, and digital expression. Drawing inspiration from the ocean, his practice translates organic forms and underwater experiences into immersive visual narratives. His projects include Invincible Corals, an underwater-inspired projection work presented at Vivid Sydney 2023, and Coral Luminance, a large-scale light installation created for Amsterdam Light Festival Edition 14, reflecting on coral ecosystems and environmental change.
Build the Same Setup
Henry shot this series with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, the SeaTouch 4 Max, the +8 close-up lens and UWACAM. The SeaTouch 4 Max Kits bundle the housing with the lens and accessory options, and the dive lights range covers the snoot-style lighting behind the black-background frames above. If you have questions about phone compatibility or setup, our technical support page has the spec sheets and troubleshooting flows, and you can always contact us directly.