George Kao (高國維) is a 37-time award-winning underwater photographer based in Taiwan, a PhD in life sciences, and one of the few shooters in the world who treats a freshwater mountain stream as a serious creative venue. He has won an Olympus Underwater gold (2019), an Ocean Art portrait gold (2022), an Ocean Geographic "Dr. Alex Mustard Award" first place, a UN World Oceans Day silver (2024), and three consecutive Underwater Photographer of the Year honors in the portrait category (2023, 2025, 2026). In 2025 he joined the underwater team for Taiwan Power Company's 80th-anniversary documentary and was appointed ecological photographer to the New Taipei City Water Resources Bureau, a role he continues into 2026.
He also shoots almost all of his stream work with a phone in a DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max. We sat down with him to understand why.
From a bathtub face mask to gold medals
Long before the awards, Kao was the kid who wore his parents' snorkel mask in the bathtub and refused to come out until the water went cold. "Looking at the world from underwater was already an instinct before I ever picked up a camera," he says. In college he tried surfing, but spent most of each session lying flat on the board with his face submerged.
His route into competitive underwater photography is unusual. He is also a musician, and he credits his shooting style to that background. He calls it the Riff Approach™: rhythm, sustained observation, and time on site, in place of trophy-species chasing. His 2019 breakout image — a baby sea turtle making its dash to the sea, shot in macro at Indonesia's Derawan Islands — won that year's Olympus Underwater gold and put him on the map.
Why streams, not the open ocean
Kao still shoots blue water. His 2025 Ocean Art wide-angle silver came from chasing marlin off Mexico, and he won wide-angle gold, silver and bronze plus a macro bronze in the Ocean Art newcomer category in 2019, all of it ocean work. But the body of work that defines him now happens in fresh water, often in less than thirty centimeters of it.
"Ocean photography, for me, ends up being a kind of round-the-world sampling — point-and-shoot, hard to put down roots in any one place," he says. "The streams are different. I can be a local hero. I can stake out one pool and go deep."
The case for Taiwan's streams is also ecological. Geological isolation has produced one of the densest concentrations of freshwater endemic species on the planet — short-snouted red-spotted gobies, Formosan landlocked salmon, land-locked freshwater crabs. A hundred-meter mountain stretch can hold three to five species that exist nowhere else — exactly the kind of freshwater micro-endemism that conservation agencies consistently flag as both ecologically critical and chronically underdocumented.
The Riff Approach: the 47th frame, ninety minutes in
"I don't chase rare species," Kao says. "Every doorstep puddle can be a whole world. The point is to slow down and stay long enough to see behavior."
The image above — two endemic male gobies in a territorial flare — is a Riff Approach shot. He didn't swim out to find the action; he picked a small pool, lay prone for over an hour, and waited.
"A good stream image is usually frame number 47, after you've been quiet for ninety minutes."
The species he targets — gobies, freshwater shrimp, stream crabs, even amphibians — have routines. They patrol the same rocks, they return to the same nests, they court and dispute territory in the same shallow basins. Kao locks focus, settles his elbows on a stable rock, and lets the fish forget he's there.
Why DIVEVOLK fits a stream-photographer's workflow
A standard stream shoot for Kao runs three to six hours of immersion. A traditional housed DSLR, he says, is "almost a non-starter at that endurance, even before you reach the trailhead." A phone in a SeaTouch lets him do something a hard-housed pro rig can't: lie flat on the streambed, wedge sideways into a crevice, or push a lens into less than thirty centimeters of water without spooking the fish.
The feature he highlights first is also the most underappreciated one: the housing preserves the phone's native touchscreen. "Underwater decisions are one to two seconds long. A fish's behavior doesn't wait. If I'm trying to remember which physical button maps to which app function, I've already missed it. SeaTouch turns underwater shooting back into shooting, not the operation of a second machine."
The second benefit is more emotional than technical. Because the screen stays bright and readable, Kao can frame from above the surface — face out of the water — for most stream work. "There's a hidden barrier in underwater photography that nobody talks about: I can't be bothered. The gear is heavy, the face has to go in, the cold water hits you. Most stream images I've ever shot would not exist if I weren't carrying something this light. Convenience is a creative variable."
The external mechanical shutter: turning the decisive moment into a repeatable result
If the touchscreen pass-through is what got him onto the platform, the DIVEVOLK external Bluetooth shutter is what kept him there.
"The hardest part of phone shooting underwater isn't image quality. It's shutter reliability. Pressure and gloves break touch input; pressing hard enough on the screen rocks the housing and ruins the composition you just built."
The accessory is a glove-friendly, ergonomic mechanical trigger. Kao describes its impact in two layers. "Layer one: I can press the shutter at all. Layer two: I can press it precisely. A territorial mouth-flare is a 0.3-second window. With the external shutter, decisive-moment shooting goes from theory to a repeatable result." For more on how the Bluetooth trigger pairs and what to check if it stops responding, see our DIVEVOLK Bluetooth shutter troubleshooting guide.
Stream technique: stability, composition, light
Asked what advice he gives readers picking up a phone housing for fresh water, Kao breaks it down four ways.
Stability. "I shoot prone, almost always. Both elbows planted on a streambed rock, the housing pressed close to the surface. If I need extra rigidity I rest the housing edge against a stable rock and use the geometry as a tripod. Never hand-hold suspended in current — that's a junk-frame factory." For wading-safety basics, the American Canoe Association's swiftwater notes are a good baseline.
Focus. "Modern phone autofocus is genuinely reliable. Stop fighting it. Spend that mental budget on composition." Stream gobies have predictable patrol paths; lock focus, wait for the return.
Composition. "Ultra-close plus wide-angle thinking is the heart of stream work. Don't shoot the fish — shoot where the fish lives." Kao often pushes the housing to within five to fifteen centimeters of his subject, lets the fish occupy a third of the frame, and gives the rest to stones, water plants, and fallen leaves.
Light. "Avoid the noon zenith. Shoot 9–11 a.m. or 3–5 p.m. — the canyon walls turn into a giant softbox." Because the phone needs only one hand to operate inside a SeaTouch housing, he keeps a small LED torch in the other hand for fill, and skips heavier lighting rigs that would cancel out the kit's main advantage. If you do want to scale up, our dive light selection covers compact options.
Rhythm. "Don't go grab the fish. Stay until it accepts you."
What's in his stream kit
Kao runs two phones, depending on the shoot.
- Vivo X300 Pro — his current stream main. Large sensor, strong telephoto-macro and ultra-wide, and surprisingly clean low-light performance in shaded canyons.
- iPhone 14 Pro — daily driver and stream backup. He keeps a SeaTouch sized for it permanently in the car. "That's a configuration that's almost impossible with hard-housed DSLR rigs."
His DIVEVOLK kit:
- DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max housing for the matching phone.
- DIVEVOLK external Bluetooth shutter — "I never take it off."
- DIVEVOLK add-on lens system — macro and wide-angle modules, swapped per scene.
Plus a small LED torch for shaded crevices and rock-shadow scenes, and electrolyte-loaded drinking water for the long sessions. That's it.
What he wants next: a true split-shot dome
Asked where DIVEVOLK could go next, Kao is specific.
"A huge proportion of stream storytelling lives at the surface boundary. Fish nesting below, dappled forest light above — split-shot is its own visual language. The current first-generation dome solution is workable but has two real-world pain points: it's hard to assemble in the field with cold hands, and the dome fogs fast in cold mountain water because the temperature gradient is so steep. A one-piece, easy-to-deploy dome with anti-condensation internals would be a revolution for stream and cold-water shooters."
Consider it a public roadmap request. We're listening.
Follow George Kao
Kao publishes new stream work most weeks across:
- Website: george-kao.com
- Instagram: @george_kao_uwphotographer
- Competition profile: Underwater Photographer of the Year
If you're a stream, river or lake shooter — or just a phone-housing user who wants the same kit George trusts on his award runs — start with the SeaTouch 4 Max Kits, which bundle the housing with the external shutter and lens accessories he relies on. Questions about compatibility or pairing? Our technical support page has the spec sheets and the troubleshooting flows, and you can always contact us directly.
