Trip Report Key Largo/Tavernier Dive Trip (pics)

[Jake 10]

Great report, awesome pictures, thank you for sharing

 

[Skeptic14]

Great shots! Considering you were able to get these nice shots, did you feel you had sufficient time to take photos or, with CRD, did you have to catch up to the group occasionally? Or, did you have the ability to just do your own thing and take photos?

I have a hard time keeping up with the group when joining as a single and trying to get some photos...

Great shots and report again!

Thank you!

I've definitely experienced dives where I'm trying to keep up with the guided group or insta-buddy and thus feel rushed in my photography. When I lived in FL and dived locally that was a non-issue as I dived with buddies that were either also doing photography or weren't speed demons.

But i'm typically solo on my dive trips and have experienced all 3 options:

1) insta-buddy on boat
2) personal guide
3) follow guided group

With CRD the available options are 1 and 2. Asking to tag along with another photographer can work, there were typically a few of us with camera rigs each day on the boat. You could always get lucky with a non-photographer insta-buddy that doesn't mind going slow too. Insta-buddying has worked for me on a few dives with CRD, but that's a bit of a coin toss of course.

Or if you don't want to risk it you could opt for the personal guide for $50 for both dives, then you go entirely your own pace but get local help with critter spotting. I've used this option as well and it worked very well as a photographer.

Since photography is a big part of diving for me and since I only get 1 or maybe 2 trips a year lately I'm less inclined to risk a dive or 2 with a bad insta-buddy, so to me paying for a guide seems a small price compared to the already sunk cost of a dive trip.