I arrived in Bonaire for the Backscatter Digital Shootout Competition around 4:30pm yesterday! I am beyond excited to be here and so grateful to the Boston Sea Rovers for sending me here and to Backscatter for hosting me and planning an amazing event full of learning. For those who don’t know, the Annual Backscatter Digital Shootout is an event where photographers can gather and learn from experienced and successful underwater photographers, videographers, and editors and simultaneously dive every day and practice those skills. At the end of the two weeks, participants submit their photos and videos and hefty prizes are given to the winners. This is a dream, and I am in shock that I get to be a part of it. While in the airport
on the way to Bonaire, Cristian Dimitrius came up to me and asked if I was also attending the Shootout, since he noticed my camera gear. Cristian is teaching at this event and is a very successful photographer. It was funny because I was looking at his website and photos not ten minute before he came up to me.
Anyways, since I had arrived late (due to finishing finals for school), I was sent straight to a class upon arrival. The first class was about how to place your strobes presented by Jim Decker. The second was about video editing basics presented by James Emery. After dinner, Berkeley White walked me around and I was shown all the demo gear that was available for us to try during the competition. 
Afterwards, we all headed to the critique. Everyone submitted their photos and videos from the prior two days and the pros gave feedback. It is a really great way to learn as you get to hear everyone’s feedback.
I woke up today and packed up my new dive gear, provided by the internship, and headed to the dock. I met up with Dan Baldoocchi and he helped me go through the safety briefing and dive orientation for Bonaire. We hopped in the water and made sure my buoyancy was correct as I usually dive in a thicker wetsuit. Then I grabbed my camera and swam around the house reef. I definitely felt overwhelmed as there was so much to take photos of, and I also am not perfect at strobe placement or camera settings and adjustments yet. When I finished my dive, I was told we could shore dive whenever we wanted to. There are dozens of full tanks on the dock and I could come any time of the day or night and explore, so cool!
Now that I had done my checkout dive on the reef, I signed up for the afternoon dive. There were only five people on my boat which was nice because I got to talk to all of the divers individually. We made it to a nice dive site off of Klein Bonaire, and got all our gear ready to go. My camera was shadowed in comparison to some of the setups people had, they were so complex. Once in the water, I realized how nice it is to dive with other photographers! Everyone moved slowly and took their time capturing their own little moments. I didn’t have to worry about venturing off to take a photo since we were all doing that. I practiced the different strobe placements that Jim had taught us the night before, and am realizing that strobes really can make or break a photo. Towards the end of the dive, we came across 3 squid! Once topside, my new friend Louis said there were 8, so I must have missed a few.
We got back to the dock and I headed to the demo room, where all the cameras are kept. I asked questions about aperture and shutter speed, and how they should be changed based on the subject or the type of photos I am taking. I signed up to use the macro lens on my camera tomorrow and I am very excited! There are so many little critters that are captured better with a macro lens. Then I headed to two classes. They were about close focus wide angle photography with Berkley White and one about macro photography with Jim Decker. These were EXACTLY the classes I needed, and I took plenty of notes.
After dinner I realized I had some issues with my Adobe installation, and Erin Quigley was an amazing help. I could not have figured it out without her.
Throughout the day I felt so many emotions. I was so excited, but also felt like I didn’t belong here as the rest of the group has presented amazing photos and I have nothing to show yet. But that’s the thing, I don’t have any to show YET. I am learning and I will apply those skills throughout the next 9 days and I will improve. Sitting here writing this, I realize the feeling I had today was discomfort. I am a big believer that we should all seek discomfort, as it helps us grow and really live. So I will continue to seek discomfort, improve my photography and diving skills, and meet some really cool people while doing it.