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!