Granted the incredible opportunity of spending two months as a photography intern with Fiona Ayerst Underwater Photography, I am quite literally diving into a new world. I will become SCUBA certified within the first month, and get to photograph marine wildlife such as great white sharks, whales, dolphins, coral and much, much more. Before being accepted into the internship, SCUBA diving seemed like an unreachable luxury. I grew up in a small town in Alabama without any opportunity to learn or even gain exposure to diving culture or divers, so the idea of pursuing underwater photography had not crossed my mind. Now, I am slated to begin my certification dives within days.
The new photography interns for the month of July had a chance to practice some underwater photography at a local public pool just yesterday. I have watched the dive instruction videos required for certification, so I had an idea of what to expect. However, like most first experiences, there was hardly a way to prepare myself properly. First of all, the gear was far heavier than I thought. I knew the air tank would be pretty stout, but divers must wear very heavy weight belts as well. Once in the water these are not so bad–especially when the dive vest is inflated–but unfortunately, the equipment is a long way from the water. Once we actually got into the pool, though, everything went smoothly–as far as the diving was concerned. We had some technical difficulties with the cameras, and ended up only being able to use one of the three we took. Also, the screen of the camera we were left with would not work, so we had no idea how our pictures were coming out. Since this was a fun practice exercise, though, we were just getting a feel for shooting underwater. Diving was not as stressful as I was expecting, and I’m even more excited to finish my certification and begin a new life as an underwater photographer. (Matt Nelson / FAUP intern)
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