I was supposed to take my Olympus SP-350 for the underwater photo course with Jeff, but it leaked two days before. Then my dad allowed me to use his Canon G9, which means that I‘ll have to read the thick manual as I have had no idea how the camera works. I’ve read the manual, but still only knew very little about it. 
Jeff taught me how the camera works in thirty minutes only, and it covered basically what was in the manual or more. His explanations are very easy to understand, and it makes more sense to me as we go along.
I spent half a day studying about the basic theory of underwater photography and finding the right exposure, things got a little tricky sometimes, but most of it is no problem at all. Then we did some practise shots in the dip pool, making some notes on what exposure settings to use. 
In the afternoon we did a 100 minute dive, looking for wonderful creatures to take pictures of. It was really awesome. Dawn also came and she spotted lots of nudibranchs. The notes on the strobe power which we made earlier on the day, didn’t work out on the first series of pictures. But it got better as the dive progressed. 
After the dive, my dad looked at my pictures and compared it to the pictures I took the day before. And he was really impressed; he said that it was unbelievable. I also found a big difference between those pictures, and it’s all thanks to Jeff and Dawn. 
I think I improved a lot; before I was never aware of what the strobe power was and always put as many things in auto as possible. But Jeff told me to change that, because I can tell the camera what to do better than the camera telling itself. I think that was what made my pictures a lot better.



Mayang D Parahita (13 years old) - Brunei
Canon G-9 & Inon D2000 strobe


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