The Beginning to a fun Adventure

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Underwater Photography never meant much to me before. It's like pressing down a button every time a fish passes by (when we're diving). My dad would lend me his camera every once in a while and i would just... click the button, but i was enjoying myself. Although the results weren't so good, I was very happy about it.

Only until this August (2008), my dad introduced me to the real meaning of underwater photography. He said that I'll have a course (him as well) with Jeff Mullins. Then he bought 2 cameras (Olympus SP-350 and Canon G-9) with their casing, and an Inon D-2000 strobe. He allowed me to use one of the camera, the SP-350. As it was brand new and I had no idea of how to work it, I read the manual and played around with it (on land), just to get a feel of it before I take it down underwater.

Once we arrived in Bali, we set up our diving gears and prepared our cameras. We checked everything before hand so nothing goes wrong. Then we jump in, the sights were beautiful so I started taking pictures. Unfortunately after about 20 mins from when we started diving, I noticed that screen becomes foggy and foggier, then I noticed a leak. So I handed it over to my dad and he switched it off. It was such a sad moment, the camera had leaked on its very first dive. Straight after the dive. we got it out of the casing and dried it out. Luckily it still worked, but the screen has gone a bit weird. So my dad decided that he'll use the SP-350and I'll use the G-9 for the course. That means I have two days to study the camera. I was clueless about it, I never even touched it. The next day, I went diving with the G-9 and the strobe. I started taking pictures, it was better than my regular 'click click click'. I was doing just fine.

The course began the next day, where we sat arounda table in Jeff's house and he explained to s the hoery of taking pictures. I struggled a bit as it is more complex than what I thought it would be, but I somehow got it in the end. Then there was the dive. i was afraid that the camera might leak again, luckily it didn't. We went diving in Tulamben, looking for nice fish and other creatures to take picture of. We were underwater for almost 2 hours, my dad left earlier because he ran out of air. By the end of the dive, I still had lots of air; around 800psi.

Afterwards, we took a look at the results. And BANG, it was amazing, my dad said I did a good job. The pictures were much better; although it wasn't the best, we were still very happy about it.

So I went on diving in Seraya, taking pictures of lots and lots of critters which were absolutely beautiful. Everytime I dive, I will always bring my Canon G-9 and the Inon D-200 strobe; capturing all the incredible sights underwater. I couldn't wait for my next dive, as I will be going to Manado this December.

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Comments

[Joanne]

wow
very nice mayang!!! i don't even know u hav a travel blog~~!!