Celebrity cruises or the liveaboard's photo pro, who's better?

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ewaiea

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Location
Minnesota (USA)
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I'm planning on doing the Kona Aggressor August 1-8, 2009. I have an opportunity (since I'm a single traveler) to get the last spot on the Stan Waterman celebrity cruise instead for July 11-18, 2009. If I can get that spot I'd actually be sharing a room with Mr. Waterman (so I'm told by Aggressor reps). Have any of you taken these celebrity photo/video cruises and if so, what more do they teach you about photography that the photo pro on board cannot teach you?

Keep in mind, I just purchased my first underwater digital camera (getting back into it this year) - Sealife DC800 Pro (with single external strobe). This is a fairly simple camera to use even though it does take some practice to use, would a celebrity photography seminar be a bit too advanced for the likes of a point and shoot nooby like myself?

And also, on these celebrity cruises, do you have to pay additional money to be able to pick the brains of the celebrity photographer onboard or is it included in the trip?

Thanks all! This'll be my first liveaboard and am I ever pumped!!! As usual, thanks in advance for any advice....
 
All brain picking would be included. If they are announced then they're available, otherwise they're just another guest.

Tip: Realize that you've got two big competing activities there. First liveaboard dive with more remote dives then you are used to getting. And camera. I'd say priority one should be enjoying the diving because it's done when you leave the boat while you can continue to learn the camera skills independently. It's tough to have enough time to enjoy both. For example, I took AOW and Nitrox on one of my first liveaboards and I hardly had time to relax because I had to keep studying, but I wanted to enjoy my diving, talk with the other guests, etc. So think about what is important and what you won't have access to off the boat. Yes, it is possible to do both, but you may not get to spend as much relaxed time at doing it.
 
In my 3 liveaboard trips, only 1 had a REAL photo pro. The others had crew members with multiple duties one of which was to be the on board "photo/video pro".
 
I'd expect more opportunities to learn on a designated photo cruise. Not only from the celeb photographer, but probably from other passengers too. It seems like the trend is away from having regular photo pros on liveaboards. With digital photography there are a lot more people taking their own and doing a pretty good job of it. So less interest in buying anything and no need to have someone to develop film. (I think most boats have repurposed the photo labs as cabins or something else by now.)

If there is a designated photo pro on a liveaboard noadays, it's generally much more part time than it used to be. So learning from the "photo pro" isn't something to count on. Even if there is someone, their level of knowledge and capability to teach you it is a crapshoot.
 
Stan doesn't actually teach on these trips. What he does is evening "bijou entertainment" by showing some of his old videos and such.

He is a great and entertaining speaker and a trip with him is not to be missed. I have had the pleasure many times when i worked with Aggressor
 

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