Down Under Dive Club

The Down Under Dive Club (DUDC) holds meetings on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 7:00 PM at The Broken Barrel Tavern, located located in the plaza at the southwest corner of Palm Bay Road and Babcock Street in Palm Bay. The March 08 meeting will have Steve Ratts as the guest speaker. He will provide an initial presentation about underwater photography. This is the first of three workshops that will be distributed across the remainder of 2017.

Steve Ratts began diving in 2003, promptly borrowing, and subsequently breaking, a friend's old underwater film camera on a trip to Hawaii. Undaunted, he proceeded to invest in his own own photo gear purchasing a point and shoot digital camera with an Ikelite housing and strobe. This rig proved sturdy enough to survive a return trip to Hawaii, plus adventures in Fiji, Cozumel and elsewhere; but left Steve feeling constrained by shutter lag and an insufficient supply of pixels. He solved that problem by first moving up to a crop sensor DSLR, and then ultimately to a full frame DSLR - each time accompanied by yet bigger housings and strobes.

Along the way Steve began entering some of his shots in photo competitions. He quickly moved up through the ranks of beginner and intermediate, until he was stuck in advanced with a bunch of other photographers who were, to put it bluntly, considerably better than he was. It turns out that's not a bad group to be stuck in since it really challenges you to learn and improve. Eventually, he was invited to help put together a three-part series of workshops on underwater photography for his local dive club back in Tucson, AZ (a hotbed of scuba if ever there was one). Finally, coming to his senses, Steve decided to abandon the hot, dry, desert and move to a more scuba conducive hot, wet climate - and so he now lives, dives, and works in Florida!

Underwater Photography Workshop 1

This is the first in a series of three workshops dealing with the tools and techniques used in underwater photography. This session is focused on how to prepare for and plan an underwater photo dive. Subsequent sessions deal with the dive itself, and how to process your photos after you are back from the dive.

In this workshop you will learn about the various types of gear options you have when it comes to underwater photography, including the pros and cons of each type. This will cover modern cameras from compact self-contained models up through full frame DSLRs, as well as the housings, ports, strobes and important accessories that are available these days. You will also learn basic photography fundamentals that are useful both underwater and topside, and which will prepare you for Workshop 2. Finally, you will learn about how to plan and prepare for an underwater photo dive so that both you and your gear are ready for it and you can get the most out of it.

This workshop includes the opportunity to examine first hand different sorts of underwater photography gear ranging from simple point and shoot cameras up to the most sophisticated full frame DSLR rigs as well as strobes, focus lights, and other accessories that can help you bring back that shot of a lifetime.