My camera club roped me into giving a presentation on UW photography

[RonFrank]

NOTE: I just noticed this post may not be very timely! Ohh well, I'll leave it for anyone that is interested.

I've done a lot of photography presentations over the years (none on UW photography ).

UW Photography as a subject is too big to cover at anything but a very high level. My suggestion would be to pick a topic, and proceed from there.

For example you could do a presentation on a specific location. You could put together a slide show of pics from that location, and cover things specific to that location like travel tips, shooting tips, fish species and variations, exposure protection, etc.

You could do an equipment presentation. Show the various components involved, cover some maintenance considerations, lens selection, dome/port discussion, and cover some techniques involved in shooting UW.

If you don't have a lot of material you would like to present, you could cover some of the legends or pioneers of the field, and present their work, and open that up for discussion on technique, composition, lighting.

You could easily do an entire presentation on just one very narrow subject. Lighting is EVERYTHING in photography, so that would make an excellent choice, and that could include things like white balance, strobe placement, color temperature, and the challenges of shooting UW.

There are lots of options and hundreds of books dedicated to shooting UW photography, so narrow the topic down to something manageable, and go from there.

 

[f3nikon]

"Lighting is EVERYTHING in photography"

You hit the nail right on the head!

"The word "photography" derives from the Greek and means, literally, “light writing.”

 

[fairybasslet]

Thanks Ron. I was originally going to do a slide show on my trip to Thailand or Bonaire but the program chairman wanted a more general introduction to uw photography. I only have 15 minutes to speak, and I am the only diver in the club, (well, there is 1 other guy who claims to be a diver but when I ask him specific questions he gets very general) so I made it much more like an overview of the challenges of uw photography. I mean, making sure you monitor your gauges is something I go over (not very good if you run out of air while taking photos ) and I wouldn't even think to mention that if I were presenting to divers. Though it might not be a bad idea since it does happen occasionally. I think if I gave a whole presentation on lighting uw, a lot of people would fall asleep since they are not divers.

 

[RonFrank]

Thanks Ron. I was originally going to do a slide show on my trip to Thailand or Bonaire but the program chairman wanted a more general introduction to uw photography.

Sounds like you have it together. 15minutes is not much time to cover much of anything.

Make sure you tell them how DEEP you go! That's always the first question I get from non-divers, how deep? :11:

 

[Larry C]

and don't foget the Sharks. Don't you worry about Sharks??

 

[fairybasslet]

and don't foget the Sharks. Don't you worry about Sharks??

Bingo. Number 1 question I get. Too bad may old film camera didn't work on the NC wrecks when the sand tigers were 2 feet away from me.

 

[fairybasslet]

Just thought I'd let you know that the presentation at my Camera Club went very well last night. The members really seemed to like it and they asked all kinds of questions. A lot of people came up to me afterward to tell me how much they enjoyed it.
Thanks for all your help.:10:

 

[AUTiger]

The sharks thing is funny. Worry? No. Actually, we usually have to pay extra to go see sharks!

David

 

[fairybasslet]

The sharks thing is funny. Worry? No. Actually, we usually have to pay extra to go see sharks!

David

You know, I was very disappointed. No one asked me if I was scared of sharks!!