After buying a Nikon dSLR a couple of years ago I was brimming with the confidence that I’d soon be taking professional-quality underwater photos. After all, I was already getting pretty good macro shots with my little Canon compact camera in its Slimline housing; wouldn’t the upgrade to a dSLR practically ensure I’d get professional images?

Short answer: No. I struggled over several dive trips coming to grips with my dSLR, growing increasingly frustrated that I couldn’t get the shots I saw in my mind’s eye and on the camera’s LCD screen. This was my fault, of course – with a digital compact camera, it was fairly easy to experiment and learn my way around the controls by trial and error, and great results can occur from literally pointing and shooting. But with a dSLR, all the rules change: The camera is far more complex in its functionality, the housing much bulkier underwater, the camera needs lenses selected before the dive, there’s no live image preview to show what you’re shooting and, perhaps most importantly, there is real thought involved in how to position and use the strobe when lighting a subject. Taking photos with a dSLR requires a different and disciplined approach; trying to teach myself how to do all these things didn’t get me very far. Humbled, I had to admit that I had all the gear but no idea how to use it.

I began to study up on how to better use my dSLR, consulting websites and reading magazine tutorials, but I knew that if I really wanted to understand how to take better photos I’d need to do a proper, hands-on underwater photo workshop.