Underwater Photography Stage

Well, Alan and I went along to see Ocean Optics’ Underwater Photo Stage yesterday, and I loved it! It’s clear that Steve and Mark have spent a lot of time and thought putting this together.

The set is made up of a number of artificial “coral outcrops”, with all sorts of sponges, fans, and hard and soft corals. In and around these have been placed various “critters” – crabs, hawkfish, starfish, cowries, clownfish, etc. In one corner, they’ve created a wreck using a small boat, and placed fish in and around it. There are a couple of jellyfish floating mid-water, a Hammerhead (with a very friendly smile!), and even a diver floating mid-water. There was plenty to keep Alan and me occupied for a couple of hours underwater.

It’s perfect for practising UW Photography – no Dive Guides to hurry you along, no queue of other divers waiting to take photos of the critter you’ve found, and since the pool’s only 6m deep, you can do a 2-hour dive on a single tank!

Ocean Optics are also running Underwater Photography Courses with a difference. To get the best out of most courses, you need to have already bought not just the Camera, but different lenses for it, and a strobe. Ocean Optics will lend you a compact Fuji camera, with Macro and Wide Angle underwater lenses, as well as a strobe. You’ll also have an underwater earpiece, and the instructor will have an underwater microphone in his mask, so that you can get detailed feedback and advice on your photos without spending hours scribbling on a slate.

They run two different courses (click on the links for more details):

The half-day introductory course, provides some brief tuition in the classroom, then an hour or so in the pool, and a wash-up session to discuss results. This course costs £79.

The format of the complete course is similar, but lasts a (very) full day – typically about 10 hours, with much more detailed tuition, at least two sessions in the pool, and advice at the end of the day on how to transfer what you’ve learnt with the loaned equipment to your own camera. (You can use your own Camera for the course, but it may not be compatible with the add-on lenses and strobe that Ocean Optics provides).  The full day course costs £249 including refreshments and lunch.  You”ll learn a range of topics – including how to prevent the backscatter you can see in the photo above!

Ocean Optics have also said that they can tailor a course to suit what GLUG divers want to get out of it – so if the full day sounds too expensive, but the introductory course sounds too brief, there may be an option for something in between.

It takes several hours for Ocean Optics to assemble the set – it’s not something that is there all the time, since the pool is used by special effect film crews, etc.  They therefore need to know that a certain number of divers will turn up before they can put the set in place.

We’ve agreed a date of Saturday 28th November for a “GLUG day” at Ocean Optics.  We need at least 2 people interested in the complete course, or 3-4 people interested in the Introductory course.  Other divers who would like to come and just practice their skills on the artifical reef are also welcome – this costs £45 for up to 2 hours in the pool, and will be fitted around the training course (people on the course get exclusive use of the pool during their in-water sessions).

If you’re prepared to sign up to a course, or to a session in the pool on November 28th, please leave a comment below, saying which.  If you think a tailored course would be better, then send me an email (click on the envelope next to my name when you’re logged in), telling me the sort of tuition you’re looking for.  Alan and I will both be at the GLUG meeting on Tuesday evening, so feel free to ask us questions!

Finally, here are few of my best shots from yesterday (click on them to see the full photo):