Here is an example of our itinerary. Schedules and presentations change depending on the needs of the participants and the expertise of the guest presenter. The standard package comes with 7 days of diving, so you have the option to skip dives on the days of your choice, or purchase additional dives at the dive shop.
Day 1 Saturday: Participants arrive. Some come in early and may already be diving.
5:00: Getting acquainted, short presentation of the Marine Park rules and photographer etiquette, review of photo contest rules, show off prizes. I may also do a short presentation about prepping camera gear, batteries, lenses, etc. for the week. Distribution of rental camera gear if applicable.
We sometimes go into town on either Saturday or Sunday night for dinner and family night at the square. Each person pays for their own food & drinks.
Optional free shore night diving as late as you want to do it. Check out your tanks at the dive shop before 6:00 pm.
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Day 2 Sunday: 2-tank boat dive. Optional free shore diving in the afternoon.
5:00 Monday evening: Workshop Presentation/Bonnie – Common Mistakes in Underwater Photography
6:00 Workshop Presentation/
Optional free shore night diving as late as you want to do it. Head into town if you like. It’s Family Night at the square!
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Day 3 Monday: 2-tank boat dive. Optional free shore diving in the afternoon.
5:00 Tuesday evening: Workshop Presentation/Amanda – Ambient Shooting (In Water and Post Production) What you need to know
6:00 Workshop Presentation/Bonnie & Amanda – Working With Models
This is a great session for non-shooting dive buddies too.
6:00 Optional Presentation/Bonnie - Photo Composition and Ideas To Make Your Photos More Interesting
This is a popular presentation that I've given at many of the Underwater Photographic Societies and dive clubs around the US. It discusses theories of composition such as working in thirds, the golden mean & golden spiral, lines and diagonals, negative space and framing, and more. Its a very inspiring presentation for photographers of all skill levels, both underwater and topside because it doesn't focus on how big your camera rig is or how much experience you have. It also shows lots of examples of how one might typically shoot a particular subject, then offers ideas on new angles and techniques you might want to try next time.
Optional free shore night diving as late as you want to do it
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Day 4 Tuesday: 2-tank boat dive. Optional free shore diving in the afternoon.
5:00 Workshop Presentation/Bonnie – Lighting
Wide-angle lighting, macro and special lighting techniques such as shooting with a snoot.
6:00 Workshop Presentation/Amanda – Optimizing Low Light Shooting (Night Dives, Dark dives like caves, cenotes)
Optional free shore night diving as late as you want to do it
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Day 5 Wednesday: 2-tank dive, optional shore diving
Histograms
Exposure Scenarios
Shooting Big Animals (How to get the best images)
Followed by optional image processing session until 7:00
In this session participants are asked to bring in any images that they had problems with or were looking to correct. We talk a little bit about file formats and digital workflow but spent most the time showing they typical steps an imaging professional takes to process an underwater image. There are many ways to color correct images and underwater scenes have special needs. We encourage shooting in RAW and demonstrated why this format is best for underwater shooting. We also talked about ways to shoot different next time so we can avoid the problem in the first place.
Optional free shore night diving as late as you want to do it
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Day 6 Thursday: 2-tank dive, optional shore diving
5:00 Workshop Presentation - Bonnie's 6-Step Salsa – Processing RAW Images with Adobe Photoshop CS6 Raw Converter/Lightroom
I make six possible basic adjustments to every image I process. This presentation will be about those steps.
6:00 Mexican Night Pajama Party
Optional free shore night diving as late as you want to do it
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Day 7 Friday: 2-tank dive, optional shore diving
5:00 Workshop Presentation – Processing underwater images with Adobe Lightroom
How to process JPG and TIFF Images in Photoshop
6:00 Workshop Presentation/Bonnie – Keywording (applies to Lightroom, Photoshop Bridge, other comparable apps)
Optional free shore night diving as late as you want to do it.
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Day 8 Saturday: 2-tank dive, optional shore diving
3:00-6:00 - One-on-one sessions to critique and suggest photo contest entries. Each attendee brings 10 of their favorite images, both processed and unprocessed. We critique everything, from shooting through processing and tell them which images I think they should enter in the contest and why. I typically put a signup sheet on the classroom door to let people sign up for 30 minute sessions. Depending on how many people we have in the workshop, we may need to split them up into two groups and have you do some and me do others. We have 22 people participating in the workshop so we can get eight sessions schedules in this time.
Optional free shore night diving as late as you want to do it
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Day 9 Sunday: 2-tank dive, optional shore diving
3:00-6:00 - One-on-one sessions to critique and suggest photo contest entries (eight more sessions)
Optional free shore night diving as late as you want to do it
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Day 10 Monday: 2-tank dive, optional shore diving
1:00-4:00 or as needed - Final one-on-one image reviews
5:00 All contest entries are due to Bonnie
5:00-6:30 Judges pick the winners
6:30 Happy Hour
7:00 Dinner in the upstairs restaurant at Scuba Club Cozumel
8:00 Slideshow, awards presentation of the winners
Optional free shore night diving as late as you want to do it.
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Day 11 Tuesday: Departure