Woke up bright and early at 6am to get my camera gear ready and breakfast eaten before heading to the dive boat at 7am. Today I am borrowing a macro lens from Backscatters demo gear! I have never shot macro before, so this should be interesting. The first dive site was called Angel City, and it was a shallow reef that was perfect for macro photography. Past Intern Russel Laman was also shooting macro so we stuck together. I tried my best, but definitely want to review the recommended camera settings for macro and maybe try a snoot. Towards the end of the dive I gestured towards a large group of squid. There were probably 30! I learned my lesson on squid and other photographer etiquette as I came up on the squid too fast which disturbed the peace. Now I know! Unfortunately, the battery in my dive computer died so I sat out the second dive for safety. I am hoping we go back to the wreck site that the second dive was on so I can do it before I leave.
After lunch I visited the demo gear room and there was a snoot available to use! This will be my first time using one. A snoot is a lite that creates a small circle of focus that is great at enhancing macro photography. After getting a new battery in my dive computer, I found Todd Winner on the dock and we dove together as we were both working on macro. The snoot was difficult for me at first, but Todd and Greg both made adjustments to my setup underwater which helped tremendously. Todd even held my snoot towards the end of the dive and I was able to get this picture of a blenny. 
I was very excited after this dive as I felt like I took what I learned in the classroom about macro and applied it.We then had a quick turn around and headed to Erin Quigleys class that discussed how to remove the cyan color from photos through Lightroom. This is very helpful, especially since I plan to shoot wide angle tomorrow and will run into that issue more. Then Hergen Spalink taught a class about color correction with video. I have not shot a video yet, but that may be something I try next week. Got a quick dinner and then headed to tonight’s critique. I submitted three photos and was very nervous for them to pop up on the screen. Here’s the two other photos I submitted along with the one of the blemmy from above.
I think the lesson I learned today is that I am very much a beginner. When I first think about being a beginner here I get so nervous because I feel like I should be at the caliber of everyone else, in photography and diving. But no, everyone is so nice and helpful and every time I run into a situation or have a question that may be common knowledge to them, they are very helpful and it feels like they really want me to learn. After chatting with some guys, they went around the corner and started talking about how old they were when they were just starting out diving and how they felt, and it made me realize that everyone was a beginner once. 