 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
 |
|
Testimonials / Media |
Equipment Sales |
Training |
Practice |
Advice |
Travel |
Events |
Contact Us |
What people say about our courses
Hi,
I enjoyed Mark's talk at Bsoup on wednesday and seeing the photos was great aswell, very inspiring.
Mark Feldman
Black Rock Dive Centre - Dahab
We'd like to say a BIG thank you to Steve and Mark for once again coming over to teach the INON Instructor Course. The new instructors were totally overwhelmed by the amount of gadgets they got to play with and the overall high standard of tuition,
you're the best!
Until next time guys x
1 of the 50 Congrats to all, Awesome course, looking forward to Level 2.
Paul Hamilton INON UK Level One student
Good Morning Steve & Mark
Hope you are both now a bit rested and recovered from the weekend's courses and especially the "all girl" Sunday one??!! For my part I thought it was a great course and certainly I got a lot out of it. The delivery of all the elements to the course is very well structured and methodical and the evaluations we had to do at various stages of the theory are very valuable too. The set up in the dive pool for the practical work is a master class of art and design and great fun to participate in and makes all the theory come alive. A lot is mentioned about it being a very long day, it is, but how that time flew by is incredible! It is clear that you have put this course together with a lot of experience and knowledge and through your hard work, you make it all work extremely well.
It's a big challenge for me as I have only been used to really using underwater mode and more recently played a bit in the Programme mode on the Fuji F200EXR to try and step out a little bit! As you know recently I have switched to the Fuji F50d which was my hubby's and made a good start by purchasing/changing over to the Inon tray, arm & float that you advised me on in great depth and set up on it for me. I just need to go through with you that little niggle on the fibre optic connection at one end!
The content of quite a bit of the course was therefore very "new" for me and I knew I would feel a bit daunted by all the physics but I was both surprised and pleased that I didn't get the sense of feeling totally out of my depth, albeit that I might not react/latch on as instantly as others can! From Sunday's course I certainly have a much greater new knowledge/understanding now of an aspect of underwater photography which is where I am aiming for having been with you guys on Sunday. I am sure that as you use the Fuji F50's for the course, the practise I have had this will prove to be much to my advantage too! What I can make up for is that I have lots of patience and therefore will not get frustrated if my better results take a little time to come through!! I will certainly be able to make use of the reference books I have much more advantageously now too and would probably consider purchasing the Martin Edge latest edition that you recommend so highly.
Fuji was able to repair the fault in the sticking shutter button on my F50d camera so all is in perfect working order again. I am going to run with this camera for my underwater photography for the time being as the course showed me how however, what I also gained from the course was the knowledge and practical experience of experimenting with those lenses!! Are you around Thursday/Friday afternoon for me to pop over with my equipment set up and to chat to re the lenses?
Once again thank you both for a thoroughly enjoyable course day and I am even more looking forward to next week in Taba with my camera now!!
Kind regards
Carol
P.s. I would be very interested in your Photography Club too!
Dear Steve/Mark,
I just want to say thank you very much for a very informative, professional and overall enjoyable day during the course. I very much appreciate the time and effort you both put into this course and feel that it is very good value. I am really happy that it has set the foundations for my underwater photos and think that it was a good step after investing in the S95 and the other components (as what use is good equipment if you cannot use it properly?). Anyway, thank you very much and I hope to visit your shop as soon as I get the time.
Regards,
Henry
Steve, it was a great, great day and I'm looking forward to the level 2 course and I really want to be part of the OOUPC too. I will ring you as soon as I get a moment to myself x
Penny Dixie
Mark / Steve
"I would just like to again thank you for a full and informative course,that was conducted in such a relaxed way that I couldn't believe that it was 13 hours long .I have come away knowing which direction to go with my diving and will continue to try to improve my photography."
Andrew
"Just want to say thank you for yesterday, was a brilliant course, I thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt a lot.
Thanks again guys"
Claire
"Overall I thought it was an excellent course. I came as a point & shoot snapper with minimal understanding of photographic theory, wanting to learn more, and this is exactly what I got from the day. I thought the classroom sessions were informative, about the right length and covered the subjects well. I now understand why pictures I have taken in the past have failed to meet my expectations and ways I can improve with my current setup / equipment I may need to purchase to move on.
Pool sessions were good, having communication underwater made the whole learning experience easier, The exercises were well thought out to show the effects of changing settings on picture output, and the continuous feedback provided guidance through the day. The props greatly aid the experience and assist in getting it right. The ideas around composition were really helpful, this is something I still have to improve on but will come with practise.
It was a very long day and I think that towards the end of the 2nd pool session I had got tired and lost focus on what I was trying to do, I think it may have been better to have the 2nd pool session slightly earlier in the day, but not sure how this would have fitted in around the theory Initially I thought that £249 seemed slightly expensive for a 1 day course, however taking into account the class size, amount of subject covered and the experience and skills of Mark / Steve it was very good value. I was pleased that although the course was based around INON products, there was no sales pressure at all".
Simon Bradley
Hi Steve/Mark,
Great workshop the other week, both richard and I enjoyed it, many thanks.
Tony
Ocean Optics (http://www.oceanoptics.co.uk/oceanopticsinone.html) run the Inon Level 1 Underwater Photography course. This is far more comprehensive and a much higher standard than the PADI Underwater Photographer course..
Devondiver
Scubaboard
Having bought the Canon Powershot G11 with underwater housing I had high expectations, and it did appear to have a lot of useful features that I hadn't had the confidence to use like manual exposure control initially. However, I took a digital underwater photography course in Basildon, Essex with a company called Ocean Optics, which taught me how to take high quality images underwater. Money well spent, and that was the moment I wished I had done the course and spoken to them before making my decision.
One thing I learned from the course is that to take high quality images underwater you need to get close to your subject to reduce the amount of water the light has to travel through the water. The practice sessions in the pool proved that. The built in lens in the camera simply isn't capable of getting close enough. You need a wide angle, or even a fish eye lens particularly when shooting anything big like sharks and whales or even wrecks.
I am not suggesting you rush out and buy a DSLR for underwater photography. The housings for these are really expensive. The powershot s95 would be a far better option because lenses can be fitted to the underwater housing. Ocean Optics can give more information on this but they do adaptors and lenses made by a company called INON (Japanese I think), and the lenses can be changed while underwater. This means that you could swap lenses to get that perfect shot, and there aren't many features the g11 has that the s90 and s95 don't. I used one on the course and on viewing the pictures they were really good.
Also, the strap that comes with the dc34 housing is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard for underwater use, which proves how much Canon know about diving. It was just an ordinary strap you put round your neck. Fine if you just want to hike accross the moors in the rain, but not worth spending £200 on a case to do that, so I needed to invest in a decent lanyard from my local diving store.
I would strongly reccomend enrolling on the Ocean Optics INON level one course before making any purchase decisions to try out their equipment and learn how to use it properly. I am now considering part exing my camera and housing for a powershot s95 which isnt really what I wanted to do because it cost a lot to buy, but I am never going to get high quality images from the G11.
Steve
Hi Mark & Steve,
I just wanted to say huge thanks to you both for all your efforts at the weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed the INON level 1 course on Sunday and learned a lot although probably just as important - got myself well motivated to get out there and take better pictures!
I particularly enjoyed the wet sessions and my favourite 'classroom' part was the tips / tricks section near the end. I sort of wish that I'd had more time to spend with my own camera but having said that, its probably best that I wait until I've got all my new kit together first!
I didn't feel that it was appropriate to mention this at the time (even though diving with sharks and national geographic were mentioned), so whilst I'm on, please allow me to share a wee link to one of my shots being used by national geographic's website in one of their shark features: - http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/photos/your- shark-photos/#/ lemon-shark-bora-bora_9040_600x450.jpg Again, many thanks for everything and I hope to catch up with you guys again soon. Doubtless we'll talk when the new gear arrives which will hopefully be soon.
Please also pass on my gratitude to Fred, Chrissie and the underwater studios team.
All the best.
Cheers!
D.S.
Dougie Souness
No Half Measures Ltd