A New Underwater Shooter

During my recent Tahiti trip I had the pleasure of taking Christopher Robinson, Managing Editor for Outdoor Photographer, Digital Photo Pro and PC Photo on some of his first dives as a recently certified PADI Open Water Diver. Now Christopher knows photography, so I really valued his opinion of PADI's new Digital Underwater Photo course, so I taught him the course. He got some great photos and had this to say about the experience...."Underwater photography is a completely different world compared to shooting on terra firma. As one who knows my way around a camera pretty well, I found the PADI Digital Underwater Photography certification to be enormously useful for bringing me up to speed with special tips and techniques involved in getting good photos while beneath the surface. The course is designed for snorkelers and scuba divers alike. You don't have to use scuba to get great underwater photographs. Once I had the camera properly set up, I found myself shooting almost non-stop whether I was diving deep or just snorkeling near the surface."Check out PADI's Digital Underwater Photo program for yourself!

Tahiti/Bora Bora Pics

Just a few of the memories from my trip to Tahiti. The diving was really great and I just loved the area all the way around. Hope you enjoy the images. Budd

Wow!!

Just got back from Tahiti/Bora Bora. What great diving! Tried to get in with the Humpback Whales but it didn't happen. Saw a few of them but they just didn't want to play. The diving in Bora Bora was loaded with great coral reefs, plenty of blacktip, gray reef and lemon sharks, Napolean wrasse and lots of tropical fish. Took lots of pictures (will post some in the next few days). It was expensive as I was warned, but well worth it. Thanks to all who offered advice and tips. Now its on to a night dive this weekend in Laguna and a 3-day trip aboard Vision to the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara during Thanksgiving week in November...... just can't get enough!!!! Budd

Diving in Tahiti

I just booked a dive trip to Tahiti (Bora Bora) for the end of the month and am very excited. Never been there before, how about you? Can anyone give me some tips, insights and ideas? I will be taking pictures (my housing for my Nikon D200 just came in, yeeee hahhhh) and would appreciate any feedback on how to make the most of the opportunities. I can't wait!!!!! Budd

Gotta Get Wet!

A little over a week ago I had a nasty spill on my mountain bike, whacked my head pretty good (thankfully, had a good helmet on!). Makes me think that I should have been diving instead! Speaking of diving, my buddy and I are going to do a beach dive in Laguna Beach (CA) this weekend. Its been a while since I did a local shore dive. I really like the convenience and the excercise that comes with beach diving. I can get a great dive in before lunch and then spend the rest of the day doing something else fun (like cleaning all the sand out of my gear!). Hope the dive conditions stay as good as they are right now!!! C'mon Saturday!!! Tell me about your beach dives. Do you like beach diving? Where is your favorite beach dive? Budd

Diver Soup

Went diving at the Underwater Park in front of the Casino at Catalina Island last weekend. I had heard from a few divers who were there a few days earlier that the large Black Sea Bass (300-400lbs large) were spotted in the park. Well, I gather a lot of divers got that news! The place was packed with divers, students and certified divers alike. Made for interesting entrances and exits.... The diving was great... but the Black Sea Bass were no where to be found and I flooded the digital camera/housing I had borrowed. That was fun. Funniest part was that I flooded (total flood) it early in the dive so decided to dive anyway and just deal with it when I returned to shore. I couldn't close the housing (that's right, the door was wide open!)due to the water pressure. So I surfaced, raised the flooded housing out of the water, dumped the water out, closed the housing door and prepared to descend again. I noticed I had surfaced among some new dive students and they were watching me with great interest. I wished them a great dive and descended, likely leaving them wondering what I was thinking.....My dive buddy, Pete, did get some good shots with his digital as you can see here. He would not let me borrow his camera for the second dive. I wonder why???? Do you think he's being unreasonable? Budd

No such thing as a bad dive!

All I want to do is dive! I just got back from a great weekend at the Channel Islands off of Santa Barbara, California. It was a great 2 days of diving, good vis, but no camera! I just sold my housing and DSLR so I can upgrade to the "latest and greatest", now I'm between systems. I must say, though, diving without the camera was somewhat refreshing. It allowed me to see more and not feel as though I needed to accomplish something (hope that doesn't rub off at work...). I highly recommend that you photo types try it once in a while. I will dive "camera free" once in a while...but not too often. So, where was your most recent dive? How was it? Where do you want to dive next? Budd