Though we have several snorkeling photography workshops in several different destinations which include Belize, North Sulawesi, and the Cayman Islands, all will focus (pun intended) on a very similar set of underwater photography principles and techniques, regardless of the destination or who your photo pro is. Here’s a quick breakdown of what you can expect from one of our photography workshops.
Focus of the Workshops
- Understanding your Camera
Every camera is a little different, and understanding the nuances of your camera can be one of the biggest things to improving the quality of your images, particularly where colors are concerned.
- Composition
A lot of time will be spent throughout the trip discussing the importance of composition. Choosing what to include in a single image is really one of the most important fundamentals of photography.
- Light
Much like composition, we will also spend a great deal of time discussing light and how it changes underwater and the different ways in which we, as photographers, can react to it with your cameras, either by using the natural light or by using an artificial light source such as a flash or a photo/video light.
- Marine Life Behavior & Subject Selection
Understanding how marine life is going to behave around snorkelers will not only help you get the photo you want, but also play a big role in what subjects you select. Some species of fish for example, just don’t make great subjects, even though they be the most beautiful fish you’ve ever seen, simply because they either dart straight into the reef at the first hint of a human.
- Wide Angle & Macro
Though we will of course cover both wide-angle and macro shooting styles in theory and during our snorkeling sessions, the bulk of the time will be spent covering the principles of wide-angle photography. Reason being, as snorkelers we have endless opportunities to really perfect this particular style of photography given the vast shallow coral reefs scenes and larger subjects like turtles, rays, and people. Macro photography while snorkeling can be very tedious, and to do it well one needs to be able to hold your breath for a considerable amount of time in order to duck-dive down to their subject.
- Post Processing
Especially for those shooting in the RAW format, post-processing is an integral part of the photographic experience. We will cover the basics of post-processing as well as file management and organization.
As photo pros, we completely understand that everyone joining the tour will be at different levels of experience. At the beginning of the tour we will try our best to evaluate everyone’s skill level and sort of tailor the lectures so that it meets everyone’s needs. A bit part of this tour is just having constant access to not only the reefs and different aquatic subjects for you to perfect your photography skills on, but also to have other photographers to bounce your ideas off of and learn from. Of course, the photo pro on your tour is always available for questions and critiques and little impromptu one-on-one sessions if you are really struggling with something. We feel that the loose but organized structure of these snorkel photography workshops is the most effective way to help people to learn and really understand the fundamentals of underwater photography, while also acting as a sounding board to help stimulate some new photographic creativity.
