An one hour in-depth class on macro underwater photography with renowned photo journalist, Mark Hatter. his course is a comprehensive “deep dive” into the tools and techniques for capturing stunning macro images. Capturing small macro subjects can be challenging and frustrating at times, but this course will include a variety of strategies to help with these issues. Subject matter will include: equipment (lenses/port combinations and lighting), camera and strobe settings, subject shooting angles used to create drama, achieving dramatic dark to black backgrounds by avoiding ambient background light, adjusting the camera system to achieve Bokeh for more dramatic images, remote strobe deployment for cool backlighting effects, and shooting with snoots. Your instructor is Mark Hatter, one of our Bluewater University Photo Pros and a widely published photojournalist, who regularly leads trips with Bluewater Dive Travel as a Trip Leader/Photo Instructor.

This course is a comprehensive “deep dive” into the tools and techniques used to capture stunning wide angle underwater images. Subject matter will include: equipment (lenses/port combinations and lighting), camera and strobe settings to balance ambient and artificial light to achieve drama in images, strobe angles to provide best scene illumination for vertical and horizontal subjects, how to shoot sunbursts, how to shoot wide angle macro images and how to shoot split level images. The techniques in this course are designed for the intermediate to advanced photographer who possess a solid understanding of shooting underwater. The primary objective is to provide the shooter the pro’s techniques to enable truly creative and artistic wide angle image capture. If you are an experienced underwater shooter desiring to take your skills to the next level, this course is designed for you. Your instructor is Mark Hatter, one of our Bluewater University Photo Pros and a widely published photojournalist, who regularly leads trips with Bluewater Dive Travel as a Trip Leader/Photo Instructor.

eff Milisen’s photography strongly blends with his training as a marine biologist. In what little off-time he can find, Jeff moonlights as a dive master to guide blackwater dives from his home in Kona, Hawaii. He developed in situ methodology to study the diversity of pelagic life observed on blackwater. Jeff’s photography is best known from his work in blackwater which has won him over 14 awards in international competitions and has been featured in over 40 magazines. His book, "A Field Guide to Blackwater Diving in Hawaii," is due out in June of 2020, so stay tuned!

Papua New Guinea is one of the few places left in the world that has pristine coral reefs that remain remote and virtually untouched by globalization. Scuba diving Papua New Guinea’s reefs is a magical and life changing experience, and the 40 plus hours of travel to get there is well worth it. This course will educate divers on what it’s like to adventure to the far reaches of Papua New Guinea’s remote Milne Bay and Eastern Fields in the Northern Coral Sea. Visit the incredible wall, plummeting to infinity, at Deacon’s point. Explore Dinah’s Beach where black, volcanic sands harbor all manner of macro critters, from nudibranchs to ornate ghost pipefish. Then, venture more than 100 miles offshore to the open Northern Coral Sea to visit epic and rarely visited dive sites including Carl’s Ultimate and Boot Reef. Your travelog/adventure guide is Mark Hatter, a widely published photojournalist and one of our Photo Pros for Bluewater University. Mark has been to this region five times (it’s just that good) and will share with you in a series of slide shows and conversations, his incredible adventures.

Editing your underwater photos in Lightroom can be intimidating. There are endless combinations of things you can do to clean up your photos and bring them to life. In this class we'll start off with why I always recommend Lightroom Classic over cloud-based Lightroom (aka Lightroom CC), as well as what I use Lightroom for vs what I use Photoshop for. Please note - this entire class is taught using Lightroom Classic - most of the edits are applicable to plain Lightroom/Lightroom CC, but you will get the most out of this if you get Lightroom Classic. We'll talk about file management, and then we'll dive into the most time-consuming part of post-processing - going over workflow and how to save yourself lots of time sorting and culling your photos. We'll also talk about what you should be looking for when deciding to keep or delete photos. Then we'll get down to the nitty-gritty - I'll walk you through my "standard workflow", a set of about 16 steps that I follow while editing the bulk of my photos. We'll cover what the actual functions do, and then I'll walk you through some example photos of mine. After that we'll cover exporting photos for sharing and printing. To wrap things up we'll have a Q&A session, followed by a live editing tutorial on some of the photos submitted by participants. Because Lightroom is complicated and takes a lot of soak time to really learn properly, I'll also share with you my Lightroom guidance document, that shows most of what I cover in the class - functionality, pitfalls, and most importantly, my time-tested workflow you can follow on your photos until you are comfortable enough to create your own. I really want you to be able to take away everything I cover in this class! I am really excited about this class because I love showing people how to use Lightroom to bring out the very best in their photos. Can't wait to see you online! Bryan is an editor and writer for the Underwater Photography Guide and a photo workshop trip leader for Bluewater Photo/Travel. He lives on Vancouver Island, and loves diving his local waters, or doing any activity that takes him out into nature. Other favourite places to dive include Greenland, Komodo, Tulamben, Anilao, and South Australia... but nothing beats the local steller sea lion colonies (where you are most likely to find him during the winter season).