Having seen quite a few new divers create problems for themselves recently I thought I would make one observation in particular public in the hope it helps people in their early days of diving.
People generally finish their Open Water training with different levels of ability, some can be very good whereas other need time to focus on their development. I firmly believe that all new divers need to gain real life inwater experience before they can start claiming proficiency. I have noticed a trend of people that have completed their basic course then head out on a dive vacation which could be a great time to get that essential practice in but are hindered by bringing along a camera. For many, bringing a camera creates such a high demand on their mental awareness that basic skills like buoyancy seem to get ignored. It would be far more beneficial and the diver would end up with much better pictures if they leave the camera on land for a while until they are competent enough in the water to be able to bring it along and start taking pics without damaging the marinelife or themselves and be able to keep an active perception of what is going on during the dive.
Get the basics nailed first, buoyancy is a huge part of this. I am not a great photographer but I do know that in order to get good shots you need good buoyancy. Bad buoyancy with a camera can result in runaway ascents, divebombing the cute critter in the coral that you are trying to take a pic of or even descending too far when diving in a location without a shallow floor beneath you like a wall. Divebombing coral damages the environment and damages you too. A lesser important point is that pictures taken by someone with bad buoyancy will be blurry, grainy, out of focus and generally low quality.
If you want to test your readiness you could think about hovering exercises like picking a rock in the distance and pretending it is an interesting photo subject, swim towards it solwly and end up hovering over it close enough to get a good shot without actually touching anything.
Always remember that you have to adjust your buoyancy on the way down as well as the way up so when you do take a camera for the first few times think about leaving it off during descent and ascent. You could plan to descend and then when you have established neutral buoyancy and are comfortabe in the dive then switch the camera on and start taking pics, as you get closer to ascent time you could switch the camera off and think about the next task in hand.
Also remember that when you have a camera you still need to watch your air, depth, bottom time and no deco limit so get in to the habit of doing this periodically.
Consider spacial awareness too, it seems to be that people get so focused on their camera screen that they forget to look around for other divers, their buddy, hazards, cool stuff. Don't get so engrossed in the camera that you ignore the rest of the area you are in.
Another negative impact on the new diver who has a camera is air consupmtion. The behaviours listed above will all make the diver breath through their air a lot faster. As you dive more and develop, your air consumption will improve. This means that when you do bring the camera along you will have more time underwater in order to get more shots.
There is an expression in the UK "a stitch in time saves nine" - use the initial dives to get good and expand from there, do not try to run before you can walk.
Safe diving
Drew
People generally finish their Open Water training with different levels of ability, some can be very good whereas other need time to focus on their development. I firmly believe that all new divers need to gain real life inwater experience before they can start claiming proficiency. I have noticed a trend of people that have completed their basic course then head out on a dive vacation which could be a great time to get that essential practice in but are hindered by bringing along a camera. For many, bringing a camera creates such a high demand on their mental awareness that basic skills like buoyancy seem to get ignored. It would be far more beneficial and the diver would end up with much better pictures if they leave the camera on land for a while until they are competent enough in the water to be able to bring it along and start taking pics without damaging the marinelife or themselves and be able to keep an active perception of what is going on during the dive.
Get the basics nailed first, buoyancy is a huge part of this. I am not a great photographer but I do know that in order to get good shots you need good buoyancy. Bad buoyancy with a camera can result in runaway ascents, divebombing the cute critter in the coral that you are trying to take a pic of or even descending too far when diving in a location without a shallow floor beneath you like a wall. Divebombing coral damages the environment and damages you too. A lesser important point is that pictures taken by someone with bad buoyancy will be blurry, grainy, out of focus and generally low quality.
If you want to test your readiness you could think about hovering exercises like picking a rock in the distance and pretending it is an interesting photo subject, swim towards it solwly and end up hovering over it close enough to get a good shot without actually touching anything.
Always remember that you have to adjust your buoyancy on the way down as well as the way up so when you do take a camera for the first few times think about leaving it off during descent and ascent. You could plan to descend and then when you have established neutral buoyancy and are comfortabe in the dive then switch the camera on and start taking pics, as you get closer to ascent time you could switch the camera off and think about the next task in hand.
Also remember that when you have a camera you still need to watch your air, depth, bottom time and no deco limit so get in to the habit of doing this periodically.
Consider spacial awareness too, it seems to be that people get so focused on their camera screen that they forget to look around for other divers, their buddy, hazards, cool stuff. Don't get so engrossed in the camera that you ignore the rest of the area you are in.
Another negative impact on the new diver who has a camera is air consupmtion. The behaviours listed above will all make the diver breath through their air a lot faster. As you dive more and develop, your air consumption will improve. This means that when you do bring the camera along you will have more time underwater in order to get more shots.
There is an expression in the UK "a stitch in time saves nine" - use the initial dives to get good and expand from there, do not try to run before you can walk.
Safe diving
Drew
