Red Sea Photo Trips with award winning blue o two

I'm so proud that luxury Red Sea liveaboard specialist and award-winning blue o two have asked me to lead their fabulous "In Focus" trips this year to help both beginner and the more advanced compact camera user to develop their underwater skills and come home with a portfolio of underwater photographs to be proud of. There will be 3 trips this year, one from 29th June to 6th July to the Northern Red Sea, Tiran, one exploring the Northern Red Sea and the Thistlegorm in August and one focusing on the Southern Red Sea in October. All will concentrate on helping you make sure that you come home with fabulous underwater photographs with whatever make or model equipment you have. Please do give the friendly, expert team of blue o two a call at their office on 01752 480808 for more information.

Canon S100 Powershot Review

So after spending a lovely weekend helping David, Susie, Stuart and Chris get to grips with their underwater photography, it was time to make the fastest sprint in history to Manado, Indonesia to see Michel, my boyfriend. I only had 2 and a half days there, so naturally a part of that had to be spent diving and Cameras Underwater pulled out all the stops to lend me a Canon Powershot S100 to take on a test dip whilst over there. A few things really stood out for me, the build of Canon's own brand housing seemed a little sturdier and the traditional blue buttons had been changed for black ones. There was also a handy shortcut one touch video record button which I found incredibly useful for grabbing a lovely video of a seahorse. Lastly, the shutter button seemed faster than the S95 which is probably due to the larger sensor. As with the Canon S95, don't forget to carry an extra battery. You can read all about it on Sport Diver's website at

New Year Courses in London

So as soon as I finished helping Susie and David get to grips with their underwater photography, it was time to head to London that night to help Stu and Chris get to grips with their Canon and Olympus cameras. It was a long night journey that saw me have a power snooze on the M1, but it was a lovely day helping them and seeing them learn so quickly. Once again I was blown away by photos before the course with Stuart showing me some stunning ones taken with just his Canon 110 Ixus using the camera's white balance. I lent him a Sea & Sea strobe for the afternoon's pool session so that he could see the difference that it would make to the textures of his photographs. They both had a lovely day and I was really touched that I received lovely emails from them letting me know that they had learnt a lot from the course. Simba had a really super time too exploring the surroundings!

Welcome to the New Year's U/W Photo Courses

Phew, what a New Year it has been and it has got off to a lovely start welcoming course guests back who were with me a few years ago and have upgraded their camera systems. The first weekend of the new year welcomed PADI's Project Aware Dive Show Competition winners, David Graham and Susie Lawrence to the Gomersal Park Hotel in Leeds for morning coffees and theory practice before moving onto the pool at Robin Hood Watersports for the afternoon session. We then coffee hopped again, finishing off the day for a nice pub lunch nearby going through their images. David was using a Sea & Sea 860G and Susie was shooting with a Sea & Sea D-1G and a YS-110 strobe. Susie's photos before the course were pretty incredible so I am really curious to see how she gets on now that she has mastered the art of her strobe. I had a lovely email from them both the next day saying how much they enjoyed the course and the slight detour around Yorkshire to find an afternoon pub! You can tell that I don't get out of my little flat very often on an evening!

Wishing you a lovely Christmas and New Year

I really can't believe that another year has passed so quickly ... where on earth did it go to? So here is a special, special thank you to all my guests and to those who I have met travelling this year who have made it such a special year. I still can't believe how well my course guests have done with winning prizes, and another well done to Dave Baker, Dave Martin, Libby, Lin Henson, Ian Palmer, Alan Thomas and Daniel Norwood for doing such a sterling job! Wishing you all and your families a beautiful Christmas, a wonderful New Year and may 2012 bring you all you wish for and much, much more .... Can't wait to hear of all of your photo adventures already, so don't forget to look me up on Facebook and share them! See you in 2012!

Printing Your Photos On Canvas

So in amongst the craziness of moving belongings from London to Yorkshire, ploughing through paperwork, sending out DVDs and books I also picked up a my beloved large format printer again so that I could get back to printing guests' photos onto canvas! And it didn't disappoint with a gorgeous dazzling 12 ink colour system to really bring out the vibrancy of my guests photos. Here are a few of the prints which I have made for guests as Christmas gifts .... And here is the comment from Graeme Lockwood on receiving his! "Maria, received my canvas prints of the zebra lionfish and the wonderpus and they are fantastic! I am delighted with the way they have turned out especially considering the 'quality' of my original pics, lol, many thanks" I've really loved making these and am looking forward to getting back into the studio to finish making Lisa's order all ready for the New Year!

Alan Thomas wins Sport Diver Photo of the Month

I found this out on exactly the same day as my book started its journey across the pond to California! Alan Thomas wrote me a lovely email to say thank you for the advice which he picked up from my talk at the Dive Show at the Birmingham NEC in October and that it had helped him to win Sport Diver's Photo of the Month competition, taking it to Guest Number 6 and my third one this year! Unbelievable .... I will be posting the winning photograph of an octopus together with the letter that he wrote. Really am super touched and what a beautiful Christmas Gift ..... Thanks so much Alan for doing so amazingly well!