Agreed. Students should not be carrying cameras on checkout dives. This is totally irresponsible on the part of all involved. If you need to lay on the bottom or on the coral or on a piece of history to take a picture you have no business doing it. Unless you'd like to go lay on the bottom of one of our quarries or lakes in the 2-6 foot deep silt. Then take all the photos you want. As far as it goes, any instructor who teaches a photo class to someone who cannot control their buoyancy or does not include extensive buoyancy control as part of the training is irresponsible as well.
When you said laying on torpedos to take photos all I could think of was an image of a small shaped charge that you could remotely detonate and give them something to "think about"!
When you said laying on torpedos to take photos all I could think of was an image of a small shaped charge that you could remotely detonate and give them something to "think about"!