I am very excited to have been chosen as one of three photographers featured in X-Ray Magazine’s Comparisons Photo Challenge in the February/March issue. The brief was to choose comparisons between underwater photos and topside land photos. The full article can be viewed here.
I recently spent seven days honing my underwater photography skills at The 2019 Roatan Underwater Photo Fest at Turquoise Bay Resort and Subway Watersports on Roatan. The workshop, led by Brandi Mueller and Andrew Raak consisted of 3 dives per day, classroom lectures on various photography skills needed to produce great underwater images as well as some interesting talks about Coral Restoration and the variety of critters to be found beneath the sea in Roatan.
I’ve been shooting underwater for a few years, but with only one dive trip per year, it’s hard to improve when, at the beginning of each trip you need to remember all your settings and buttons on your housing and what you learned the previous year. That is why I find taking workshops like these so valuable. The more you hear something, eventually it’s going to stick! When I first started shooting underwater I was using a Canon G11 compact camera, manually setting my white balance to achieve better color. Wanting more creative control over my photos, I moved to an Olympus OMD EM5 Mark II mirrorless camera in an Olympus PT-13 housing (initially with 1 Sea & Sea YSD-1 strobe) which I have been using for the past 3-1/2 years. I added a second strobe last year and hoped that this workshop week would help me learn better lighting underwater and to focus where I wanted to. Andrew’s help with my understanding back button focus helped me enormously with this. I had heard of back button focus but really didn’t understand how to use it until this week.
At the beginning of the week we were given the categories for the contest and told that we would have the opportunity to enter up to 3 photos in each category: Compact cameras, Wide Angle, Macro, Conservation and Night. The conditions were challenging since the weather was not cooperating. Many of the dives had a fair amount of surge, making steadying your camera on a subject difficult (at least for me).
I was really skeptical that I would have anything good to show for myself at weeks end. But when it came down to choosing images to enter in each category, I was surprised to have a hard time choosing what to enter. And, even more surprising was that I won first place in the Conservation category as well as for a shot taken at a shark feeding no less! It was my first shark feeding dive and I have to say one of the most exciting dives that I have ever been on. Kneeling on the sand, camera in hand I just shot and shot as about 8-10 large grey reef sharks swam all around me – it was an incredible experience! To have gotten a winning photo out of it was just icing on the cake. The Lionfish photo that I took (above) during the night dive won runner-up in the conservation category.
I also won runner up in the Night category for two of my photos. The three runner up photos were all taken at night, where lighting is critical for composition and focus since there is no available light. So I’m thinking that I did achieve my goals for the week.
My takeaway from this is that practice does make perfect (or if not perfect, definitely improvement). Can’t wait to get back in the water and practice some more! Till then I’ll be practicing on land.
This is the beach in front of the eco-resort, Alor Divers, where I will be staying during my underwater photography workshop.
What do you do when, after 24+ years in business, your clients have all but disappeared? You take a long hard look at where you have been, where you are and where you hope to go. In my case, up until now I have defined myself by what I do. I am a graphic designer. But with no work to do, is that who I still am? At what point do I throw in the towel and re-invent myself? Hard questions. The answers, even harder.
It’s hard not to take this all very personally. But, rather than continue to drown in a sea of self-doubt, I have decided to shake things up a bit, get out of my comfort zone and plan an exotic, bucket-list worthy trip, where at best, I will come back with a clear direction and plan, and at worst, I will have experienced a new adventure, hopefully have met some interesting people and learned something new along the way.
So, I’ve booked a trip to the other side of the world. Specifically to a small island off of another small island in Indonesia called Alor, where I will be taking an underwater photography workshop for 10 days. To get there, I must fly to Bali and then take another domestic flight to Alor. I can’t stop in Bali without spending some time there, can I? There will be one day at the beginning where I will spend in Sanur, a beach town not far from the airport, and then at the back end of the trip I will spend 4 nights in Ubud, the town made famous by the book (and movie) Eat, Pray Love. After 10 days of diving I think I will be ready to pamper myself a bit with yoga classes, massages and some sightseeing. And, of course, take some amazing above water photographs!
I’m hoping to improve my underwater photography and get some inspiration for new life possibilities. I leave in mid-October. Who knows, I might even get some work before I go!