New Diver....extremely lucky first trip

[ChanceTLU]

Hi everyone, I am a new diver that got my OW in Qatar. After my 4 cert OW dives...the first place I dove was in the Maldives. I wonder if I am spoiled for life now! It's not everyday that on your first REAL dive, you are swimming with Manta Rays.

Check out the pics I took:

Photo Sharing by MyPhotoAlbum.com :: MyPhotoAlbum :: Maldives Underwater Pics

 

[NancyLynn]

Hi everyone, I am a new diver that got my OW in Qatar. After my 4 cert OW dives...the first place I dove was in the Maldives. I wonder if I am spoiled for life now! It's not everyday that on your first REAL dive, you are swimming with Manta Rays.

Not spoiled for life, unless you choose to be.

My first dives (including my checkout dives) were on the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns, Australia.

Since then I've dived in locations as varied as the quarries in Ohio, the cold water off various points on the coastlines in western US and Canada, the 2-3 ft viz Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia (with speedboats and water skiers nearby), and Cozumel. I hope to hop in the Great Lakes soon. My rule is that whenever I get sent for business (or travel for pleasure) and there is water nearby I try to get in it. I enjoy them all, despite having been "spoiled" on my first dives. (and if there is less to see I am more motivated to work on things like buoyancy control or navigation skills)

Check out the pics I took:

Photo Sharing by MyPhotoAlbum.com :: MyPhotoAlbum :: Maldives Underwater Pics

Nice pictures - and great job identifying the critters!

It appears you took some without flash (or were far enough away that the flash didn't provide enough light to eliminate the blue cast). I do virtually all of my underwater photography without flash - it creates too many sharp shadows and artificial spot lighting for my tastes. The color balance is pretty easy to rebalance during processing, if you are interested.

 

[don Francisco]

It's always nice to hear of a great first dive, or any great dive for that matter. Don't worry, you're not spoiled for life unless you close your mind to the new and different that you'll see on each dive. The oceans are full of multiple lifetimes of interesting life, from tiny nudibranchs to majestic top end predators.

Even on reefs that I've dived over 50 times I still find something cool on every dive. Keep your eyes open - - so much life, so little time.

 

[ChanceTLU]

Not spoiled for life, unless you choose to be.

My first dives (including my checkout dives) were on the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns, Australia.

Since then I've dived in locations as varied as the quarries in Ohio, the cold water off various points on the coastlines in western US and Canada, the 2-3 ft viz Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia (with speedboats and water skiers nearby), and Cozumel. I hope to hop in the Great Lakes soon. My rule is that whenever I get sent for business (or travel for pleasure) and there is water nearby I try to get in it. I enjoy them all, despite having been "spoiled" on my first dives. (and if there is less to see I am more motivated to work on things like buoyancy control or navigation skills)



Nice pictures - and great job identifying the critters!

It appears you took some without flash (or were far enough away that the flash didn't provide enough light to eliminate the blue cast). I do virtually all of my underwater photography without flash - it creates too many sharp shadows and artificial spot lighting for my tastes. The color balance is pretty easy to rebalance during processing, if you are interested.

I was using a Canon Powershot A520 on its automatic underwater settings. Basically from what I understand, the flash only fires if you are within a few feet of the focused area. So yes, most were taken without flash.

I am interested in learning how to change the color balance. I have Photoshop, but find that to be a tedious program to use if you simply want to change the color balance. Do you have any recommendations?