It Was Incredibly Complicated To Photograph Africa's First Underwater Hotel Room

Travel photographer Jesper Anhede originally went to Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania to start a surf school with a friend at The Manta Resort.

But he ended up with an even bigger challenge: photographing the resort's underwater hotel room — the first of its kind in Africa — anchored over 13 feet deep in the Indian Ocean.

The shoot took the veteran photographer two weeks to finish.

"You have to take the photos at exactly the best time, considering water clarity, angle of the sun, strength of the sun, when are there the most fish around, currents, tides, wind, and waves." Anhede wrote in an email to Business Insider.

He has a CMAS scuba diving certification, and during the shoot was largely focused on the light and color distortions that happen underwater, which he said were both a blessing and a curse. The turquoise water made the room look spectacular, but choosing the right indoor lighting and sheets were difficult since colors appear distorted 13 feet below the surface.

Despite these challenges and even in the middle of the island's rainy season, Anhede still made some fantastic shots of the three-tiered underwater suite.

"Sleeping in the room is a fantastic experience," Anhede wrote. "But sleeping on the sky deck of the room under the clearly visible Milky Way is almost even more fantastic. Two other things that really stuck out were swimming around the underwater room during the night, when there is phosphorus that lights everything up, and taking a dive first thing in the morning and hearing the dolphins chatter."

At $900 a night as a single or $1,500 a night as a couple, it sounds like a worthwhile experience.

Before setting out to Pemba Island, the crew visited a small village in Tanzania on the eastern coast of Africa, which consisted of only a few huts.

Anhede practiced his aerial shots with a remote-controlled flying camera he rigged in a Tanzanian jungle before shooting the underwater hotel room.

Pemba Island, home to The Manta Resort's underwater hotel room, is most easily reached by plane from Tanzania. Anhede said the flight was a "very bumpy ride."