Lovely weekend at Swanage Pier with Divers Down

Firstly, a huge apology for the delays with me the past few weeks. It has been really hard to keep on top of things whilst travelling weekly from Yorkshire to London and have made the decision to move back and base from the south of England which I hope will be finally finished in the next week or so ... More importantly, it was a really lovely weekend at Swanage Pier last weekend with Divers Down. Can you believe that one of their team saw a Basking Shark right by their boat! Divers had up-close and personal encounters with cuttlefish, there were nudibranchs laying eggs right by the pier and had a fabulous time with their cameras. It was really amazing helping Cara, Jackie and Julia with their underwater photography there in the Photobus and met Scott and Jim too who simply said "Maria, your book has helped us so much!" Thanks a million guys, I'm really pleased that it has helped you. Wishing you all a lovely week and I will be back on the pier this Saturday at Swanage. My new mini-courses are proving popular at £50 for the whole day of mentoring on the pier in-between your dives ... The kettle will always be on and brand new sugar coated chocolate marshmallow fudge will be on-board! Just a couple of spots remain! Really looking to helping Ruth this weekend ... and Michelle and Ali on Sunday in London in our private 30 degree indoor heated pool. Look forward to seeing you too very soon! :)

Wishing you all a lovely Easter weekend

Happy Easter everyone - hope that you are having a lovely weekend. I am sorry that I haven't been able to post as much as I would like and I promise to catch up soon. It has been really lovely here at Swanage Pier this weekend with the great team of Divers Down seeing lots of familiar faces, catching up with old friends and making new ones. A special thanks goes to Adventure Divers in Portsmouth for a lovely Easter Egg treat. I'll be here next weekend too offering personal tip guides for just £9.95 as well as a full day course for £50. If you are around pop past and say hi, it would be really great to see you. Have a great week and do let me know how you are getting on with your photography.

It's the London Dive Show time again and I really don't know where the time has gone too, the past two months have absolutely flown with teaching weekly since the beginning of January as well as giving talks to raise money for the RNLI, The Scuba Trust and others. So come and find out all the latest news on Stand 713 in the Photozone this weekend and find out the latest news on the hottest underwater photography kit in town. The first 5 guests to book a one day underwater photography course for 2 in London can bring 2 of their friends absolutely FREE ... Maria is also launching a new Drive and Dive the UK tour in her very own travelling Photobus. Why not come and help her plan her route which will be to help charities such as Sea Shepherd and The Scuba Trust. She will be at Swanage Pier during the Easter weekend offering special mini-courses for just £50 for all day tuition, so just pop along to book your space. Limited copies of her new DVD will be on offer as well as personally signed copies of her award-winning book. Her new iPAD application will be launched next month, so watch this space! Wishing you all a lovely weekend and I promise to update this blog far more often from now .... Hope to see you soon :)

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!