Hello everyone,

as you may have read in the news section ”PADI launches a new digital photo course” in January during the BOOT SHOW. Some readers may have noticed my photo credits in the post. And “yes” your assumptions are right: I was/am heavily involved in the developement of this new PADI course. Due to that I will be very busy until x-mas. But I’d love to hear some feedback from our users and answer any questions you might have about it here.

Stay tuned!  8) Andi

We sent a digital photo course into them from Fisheye of Cayman in about 2000? somethign like that .. I believe the reply was ... this sunject matter is no different to our already existing photo specialty and won’t sell courses ... guess they finally ate their words.

Hello Giles,

I know many people who previously submitted “distinctive digital specialties” to PADI EUROPE and USA. Their were either accepted as distintives or rejected for different reasons. I agree that there are many different ways to run or outline a digital underwaterphotography course. As the “classic” photo specialty is quite flexible I can also understand the answer you (or Fisheye) received. In fact I used the classic photo outline several times for my own digital seminars.

The new program is really focussing on different new things and targeted to quickly get a beginner started. Also experienced u/w photographers that transit from SLR film to DSLR might want to take the course. They will learn new digital photo techniques, such as “underwater white balancing” and the use of “filters”. In fact some of the techniques taught during the course were discovered no ealier than 2003. I doubt that outlines handed in before 2003 would have covered this. In fact it might be the first underwater photography manual that actually teaches how to do “filter photography” with a digital underwater system.

Personally I feel very honored, that they asked for my advice for launching a *new*’ worldwide program. They certainly took their time to look into different alternatives before making a move. But obviously I am now very biased - so what else should I say here :wink:

Andi

And so you should be ... I am sure it is a great course.

I can’t wait to see it .. and hopefully it is a lot better than the original photo specialty which was a bit of a joke really .. but none the less got people started in the sort of right direction.

I say the course was a joke .. not because of what was taught but because of who was able to teach it.
If an Instructor has done 5 dives with a camera in his hand he has that specialty ? is that how it still works ? And then you get signed off and you can teach it when registered.

I have seen Photo instructors teaching seriously interested people how to take photos and yet they couldn’t take photos themselves.

I feel there should be more restrictions on PADI’s who gets to teach specialities.

I mean it’s like going to have eye surgery from a man who still wears glasses or a hairdreser who is bald you know what I am saying.

Photography is not really something that can be taught by all as some people really dont even know what they are talking about. They are just going through the motions ... Hopefully This Digital Photo Course will get taught by instructors who can take photos with digital cameras and know all of the taught techniques and use them and aren’t just doing the course to make more money.

Hello Giles,

just another comment before I have to leave: Actually the aim of the course is to give all the PADI Instructors a good toolset, so they can really teach the course properly and make the students investment worthwile. I found that many instructors felt unconfortable teaching the “classic PADI photo specialty”, because if you were not 100% into photography the course might not have been what you expected from it. I agree to your critique there, but also I would like to emphasize my personal view on this:

I think we need to get as many people into digital underwater photography as possible! That way, we are able to kick the message of the ocean out of the water and let our non-diving friends and families know what is out there to see - and worth protecting! That was my ethical motivation behind the course.

I admit, that I have never shot film or topside and managed to learn digital underwater photography within only two/three years to get published in magazines. The course materials and your PADI Instructor should help you to ride that (already steep) learning curve within days. It simply helps you to get around doing everything by trial and error on your own. I found that PADI does a very good job in teaching people essential things within a short time. Therefore I thought that it is the right partner for this photo course, that completely follows PADIs magic receipe.

To come back to your eye surgery example: I think that it is, completely opposite! With a well designed PADI course that is properly executed to the standards you can even make a chimpanse diving.  It should not matter who actually gives you the course because the materials should always help you as an instructor to properly re-produce it. That is what amazed me about the system from the first minute on and what I always wanted to do different for my own photo course:

MAKING IT EASY FOR PEOPLE TO LEARN UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY.

The old “Here is the pro”, there is the “poor student” and delays until you got the results from your film camera always blocked the breakthrough of a photo course because many things were up to a skilled Instructor. I hope that this course launch and the upcoming success changes the attidude I have observed so many times in this small industry.

People can learn a lot about their digital camera within a short time and come back with even much better images. After that they might turn into artists or just technical shooters for documenting reef life. In fact I’d love to have as many Instructors out there teaching the program and making themselves comfortable with the course materials. They might find out that underwater photography (in the digital age) is not as complicated as they thought and that they might start teaching it.

:wink: Andi

Hello Andi,

I can’t tell you how much I’m thrilled with this news. I didn’t visit the site much since the spring because of my IDC, IE and now teaching but reading this stimulates me to come back more often.

I bougth the actual Photography Crew Pack (video + book) to see what it looks like to teach this speciality and I was quite disappointed with the b&w book… not very thrilling for students in 2005. I hope the new one will be in color! The real challenge will be to write it so it doesn’t becomes outdated too fast. 

What can you tell us about the PADI SEA method?

How does the new Digital Photography course stands in regards of the old one...is there an overlap between them? Would someone could be interested in taking both courses?

Hello WetA70

thank you very much for zour feedback I’ll try to answer some of your question. First good news: YES! The Book is in full color as it has to be for a digital underwater photo book. We will not have a video, as with the old crew pack at the moment but it might be an interesting project once the course is succesfully launched.

Along with the book we will have a very useful PADI Material. I bet you will soon find out about that. Just look at what PADI ships with the OWD manual and guess what will be shipped together with the book.

Concerning the book we revised each other very hardly not to have it outdated within a few month. You can use it to learn useful things independet from the camera brand or type. It was quite challenging to create something not to specific towards equipment and still having the information you need to learn something about your camera. Once you and others have read it, I’d love to hear if the R&D team accomplished that tricky task.

About the PADI SEA Method: It is one these small memory hooks to help you developing your shooting style. It stands for “S"hoot, “E"xamine", “A"djust and should encourage you to do so underwater if you have the time to redo the shot and change camera settings. In Level Two of the program you will learn different techniques to properly examine and adjust your shots while underwater.

Last but not least: “classic” photo course and new one compared. Yes they will co-exist. We really managed to put lots of new stuff in the DIGITAL UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHER. So actually both courses are quite complementary. You will have a very fast start into digital underwater photography with the new course and if you want to continue your education. For example - as you mentioned the crew pack - I still think the classic training video does a great job to illustrate how people handle their cameras in the water.

Hello Andi,

What I can read in the previous messages is that you wrote the specialty with PADI? Nice. Is there already any more detailed information available about this specialty? I mean more than already on Digideep?

Hello Jost,

welcome to digideep.com that is a very nice site you have launched there! I actually did not know it existed. Nice to see something in different languages. My role in the new PADI Photocourse can be described best as a Co-Developer and Consultant to PADI. I pitched the initial index and structure, also I was allowed to shoot many of the pictures for the Enduser Manual. But I have to clarify that final writing was done by DSAT / PADI America.

Due to my heavy involvement we might be the most up2date online resource concerning the contents of the new course. There is also a little more info on our German Page if you translate it with Google. If you have specific questions feel free to ask them here and I will try to answer them.

I you come to the BOOT SHOW feel free to pass by the PADI Booth.

Cheers, Andi

OK thankx. I don’t think I can make it to BOOT. I’m on my skis by then. But I think PADI also will be on the Duikvaker in the Netherlands the week after BOOT. Well, we’ll see…

Hello Andi,

Thank you very much for your detailed answer. I like the SEA acronym and glad to know that the digital course will be complementary to the the previous one.

Hi, it has been some time since this thread was opened
and I’d like to know if anybody has tried the course and
would like to report about the experience.

Good or bad feedback is both welcome!