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Any USA-based photo workshops?

Started Jun 12, 2021 | Discussions
darinb Contributing Member • Posts: 941
Any USA-based photo workshops?

Can anyone recommend a USA, Caribbean or Roatan, etc underwater photo workshop? I see they are starting back up and I would like to enroll my daughter in one--she's in grad school and has various dive certs, and wants to get "deeper" (!) into underwater photography. She uses an Olympus TG6 now.

I'm looking for something around $500 (lodging/food/travel not included) with lots of time underwater.

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Darin Boville
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PHXAZCRAIG
PHXAZCRAIG Forum Pro • Posts: 19,651
Re: Any USA-based photo workshops?

I don't know any, but since you mention Roatan...

I go to Roatan once a year, usually. Last week in September and then first week in October. I go in September because it's the off season at the place I go (Reef House Resort) and I am usually the only guest at the resort and on the dive boat. Nice having your own divemaster...

I've gotten pretty experienced at stills shooting underwater, and should your daughter be there while I'm there, I'd be happy to spend the evenings going over and post-processing shots with her. (I use Lightroom). It's not a workshop, and I'm not a photo instructor, just experienced. I've also been a martial arts instructor for many years and have some knowledge of teaching students in general.)

Here are images for previous Roatan trips:

In 2016 I finally got a housing for my DSLR and moved on from point-n-shoots.

https://www.cjcphoto.net/roatan2016/index.html

More in 2017:

https://www.cjcphoto.net/roatan2017/index.html

More in 2018:

https://www.cjcphoto.net/roatan2018/index.html

In 2019 I upgraded from D810 to D850, and I went twice, one week in March, two more in September/October.

https://www.cjcphoto.net/roatan2019-1/index.html

https://www.cjcphoto.net/roatan2019-2/index.html

Some questions for you about your daughter.

1. How good a diver is she?

2. How much does she already know about photography and the camera she is going to use?

3. How much does she already know about post-processing?

4. Is she more interested in stills, video or both?

My experience has been that you need to be a pretty good diver to safely hold the camera steady in the spot it needs to be, and you absolutely need to know how to post-process.

Bluewater Photo (where I bought most of my gear) offers various photography workshops around the world with better instruction than I could offer for sure.

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kelpdiver Veteran Member • Posts: 5,564
Re: Any USA-based photo workshops?

darinb wrote:

Can anyone recommend a USA, Caribbean or Roatan, etc underwater photo workshop? I see they are starting back up and I would like to enroll my daughter in one--she's in grad school and has various dive certs, and wants to get "deeper" (!) into underwater photography. She uses an Olympus TG6 now.

I'm looking for something around $500 (lodging/food/travel not included) with lots of time underwater.

Can you define more specifically what you mean by a workshop?

The Bluewater example is essentially no cost addition, but there may be one or two presentations daily, and everyone is encouraged to submit 2-3 daily images for critique.   Otherwise, its the intended 3-4 dives per day.

In the US timezones this could be one of the Socorro/Baja trips.   In the fat Pacific its a very fruitful, if exhausting 10 days at a place like Anilao.  (for macro, this is perhaps the greatest dive+photo learning to $$ trip I've taken in 25 years).   About 2300 + airfare for ~36 dives.

Backscatter is associated with an annual "Digital Shootout" that tends to alternate between Bonaire and Little Caymans and next June it's in Bonaire.   I've never made the schedule work, but it looks to have a pretty heavy industry presence in terms of demo gear and their ending shootout has a lot of prizes.    Backscatter has championed the TG6, so could be a match, though them making 2022 a 2 week event makes it a bit more of a commitment.

Nothing really substitutes for just diving, and ideally for more than 2 or 3 days a trip.   It takes a few dives to get dialed back in, unless she's fortunate enough to live somewhere where it's a short drive to get into the water.

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