diverdon

I enjoyed the Black and white. It conveys a sense of serene harmony.

I have a dive master there I know and trust to take me on  some conservative dives.

George, never trust a local dive master with your safety. If you miss shots that is fine, but only give the camera the amount of attention that you can spare from your dive. After 1500 dives with a camera I still have never used a teather. Some day if I have an emergency in the water my 10k rig becomes just another ditch-able weight. If you do not have your own dive buddy, the important thing is to make sure that they understand that you do not want to spend your dive taking care of someone else. If this dive master is willing to be your buddy, and help you find subjects and lead you from one to the next while suggesting compositions, that could work out well.

There are a lot of people much smarter than I on Wetpixel, but I look at underwater photography like driving while using the cell phone, You have to keep your eye on the road and you have to be willing to hang up or even drop the phone if things start to go wrong. You have to know how much attention you can spare from your driving to your conversation. If the wife calls and wants you to pick up a quart of milk on the way home that's fine. If your accountant calls and needs to go over your taxes line by line, you can not do that while driving safely. Like wise you will see things that you will know will make great photographs but you will lack the skill to execute them with the amount of attention you have available. If you can turn this into a source of inspiration rather than frustration then you could have a lot of fun with this hobby.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If the boat driver is not experienced with photographers who have gear similar to your, try to make sure that he understands how to pick up and set down your camera when you hand it to him from the water. At your safety stop, make sure that all your strobe arms are locked down tight so they do not flop against the boat when you hand the camera out of the water.

With 36 MP we will all need new glass to take advantage of that resolution. Ahhh well first the earthquake and Tsuami in Japan, now this http://www.techradar...-closed-1035636 It looks like god does not want us to shoot D800's.