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Marty: Thanks! Yeah same here: northern california. I'm averse to cold water :-) lol

Jason: in late november I think there is a lower probability of a hurricane coming through so that would be my choice between the two.

August and September are months that many of the businesses in town close down to take their vacations, clean house or renovate. Myself, I prefer to be gone those months but did not have a choice this year. So, I'm looking forward to high electric bills as I will be forced to use the A/C which I really don't like.
The downside to November is that the prices will have gone up. If you can, do October. That is my favorite month to have visitors come down.
Of course my first time to Belize was October 28, 1998. How many of you are laughing? Yeap - we got evacuated for hurricane Mitch. You pays your money and you takes you chances.

Jason - did I miss it or did you never say where it is you live?

We live in downtown St. Louis.

Originally Posted By: ScubaLdy
August and September are months that many of the businesses in town close down to take their vacations, clean house or renovate. Myself, I prefer to be gone those months but did not have a choice this year. So, I'm looking forward to high electric bills as I will be forced to use the A/C which I really don't like.
The downside to November is that the prices will have gone up. If you can, do October. That is my favorite month to have visitors come down.
Of course my first time to Belize was October 28, 1998. How many of you are laughing? Yeap - we got evacuated for hurricane Mitch. You pays your money and you takes you chances.

Jason - did I miss it or did you never say where it is you live?



We live in downtown St. Louis.

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Jason

I'm in the Crestwood area. I was in San Pedro for a few hours as part of a crusie excrusion a couple of years ago and went nuts over the place just walking into town. You are going to have a ball.

Keep changing plans for return trip, hoping for July may have to wait until later. Girlfriends mother has seriou medical problems.

Ron

I'm sure many will disagree with me, but when I was teaching scuba, I would not let a new diver take a camera on their first trip. Both require skills to do correctly, and it's easy to get distracted while you are taking pictures underwater. As others have said, the number of new divers/photographers that destroy coral and /or sea life is quite high. Add more controls on a underwater camera and it even goes up.

From looking at your portfolio, I don't think you would be happy with a "PHD" (Push Here Dummy) camera , so I recommend that you get as much bottom time as you can before you toss a camera in the mix. I was a pro photographer before I became an scuba instructor, so I know what you are talking about. I'd also suggest that you get a specialty underwater phootography certification.

Can you do it? yea, lots have..but I'd venture to say a very small percentage do it while being in control 100% of the time. Don't be a person that can't see the forest for the trees.

i think that is super wise

I'd agree. Plans:

The local dive shop has their regular open water course coupled to the National Geographic Open Water Diver certification and the PADI Digital Underwater Photographer certification. A little of all of the above, it includes the classwork, pool work, 4 dives for the PADI cert, then another extra pool dive and two open water dives dedicated to the photography end of it.

Figured that would be a good start.

Yes, a good start. The most important single thing is to have good buoyancy control before you take a camera underwater, and it's rare for people to get good enough before they have a few dives under their belt. I'd get say 20 dives and then think about it.

Pedro 2 - I second that - I usually suggest 50 but then it was me that had such a hard time learning bouyancy control - and I had a camera in hand. I feel bad about the mess I made back then.

I have given this a lot of thought since I saw the initial post on this subject, and even more since my postings. I have tried to come up with a good analogy to relate a new diver and underwater photography. Stick with me, and see if this makes sense. Try to remember the first time you rode a bike or drove a car. While I am sure that some actually tried and succeeded at taking pictures and riding/driving, I am sure that it was some what overwhelming. I also assume this your first time you drove was say in a residential area, without a lot of traffic. If you haven't tried taking pictures, riding/driving, I am sure you can remember your first experiences of driving a care or riding a bike. Even with the point n shoot cameras, this would be risky. Now make that initial trip on a six lane freeway. Maybe a little exaggeration, but just consider it food for thought.

When I took students out for photography lessons underwater, we would find a sandy part in the shallows with a little structure. A place where if you hit the bottom, you just kicked up the sand a bit. In fact, kneeling or laying down in the sand at such structures is a great place to get started. Take your time and look around, I think you would be surprised and what you will find.

Some rules of thumb for underwater photography, especially when starting out:

"If it is close enough to touch it, you should be close enough to take a picture of it."

Normally, you can't get to much light underwater for pictures.

Be safe
Have fun