Local photographer focuses on third Guinness World Record
Steve Haining has already twice been certified for achieving the deepest underwater model photoshoot. But now he’s going deeper at a Florida shipwreck.
Photographer Steve Haining is going to great lengths – depths actually – to break a Guinness World Record that he already holds.
Haining has achieved the record for deepest underwater model photoshoot twice, once in June 2021 and again in September 2023.
Haining is a Hamilton born and raised commercial photographer and filmmaker who splits his time between homes in Stoney Creek and Florida. He’s done all kinds of work for major brands, bands and other celebrities and launched his company, CreateOf, in 2015.
The underwater work actually began as a joke between Haining and a model friend Ciara Antoski during the shutdowns of the pandemic when it seemed the safest way to shoot together was with breathing tanks for scuba diving. Both had recently been certified as divers. So they started by practising in a pool and then went to shoot at a shipwreck in Tobermory, where Georgian Bay and Lake Huron meet, in June 2021.
The shots that resulted got the attention of the photography community, says Haining, and then Guinness reached out and said they believed he broke the underwater model photoshoot record. By providing dive computers for everyone involved, along with a video documenting the shoot, Guinness confirmed the record at 23.6 metres (77 feet).
But Haining wasn’t impressed with himself. He knew he could go deeper in more challenging water.
“I love to solve problems. So when people say something can’t be done, I want to figure out how it can be done.”
So he, a safety diver and model Mareesha Klups, wearing a dress with a 15-foot train, plunged to 30 metres (98 feet) where the water was just 6 C to shoot at the Niagara II, an intentionally sunk dive site in Tobermory. That depth required careful planning, lights and a model who is a master diver capable of holding her breath for extended periods.
About 16 minutes in, Klups began to convulsively shiver, so the team made its ascent.
“That one made a lot of news in the diving world and in the photography world, and so people started trying to beat it and we were excited.”
Now Haining is focused on going much deeper at a Florida shipwreck with Klups and a team of technical divers. The dive and photo shoot is planned for December. Check out the results in the early spring issue of HAMILTON CITY Magazine!
