Bjorn,

I usually shoot in "P" mode too! :-)  One of the things that "Digital" photography allows the user to do is to participate in "Shotgun" photography.  Shoot everything that is remotely what you want to shoot and with 50 or 60 "Good Resolution" shots per dive you're bound to get lucky 5 or 6 times per dive!! :-) On a week-long trip hopefully you'll get 8 or 10 really good shots!

When I was in Chuuk last March I lost the use of my (1) Strobe and had to go back to "Manual" photography.  The number of bad photos went up dramatically!! :-)  I like "P" mode!!

Alfred

-----Original Message-----
From: Bjorn Vang Jensen <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Feb 8, 2004 9:30 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SCUBA-SE] Wot we saw!

Lee Bell wrote:


>  It will almost never get you the kind of results that
> Bjorn gets, but may meet your somewhat less demanding needs.

Thank you for the compliment :-) However, I have a different take, which is
that in underwater photography, the equipment really CAN make up for a lot
of shortcomings, often much more than a deep knowledge of exposures,
F-stops, depth-of-field calculations et cetera.

I can think of maybe two or 3 pictures I have taken where I have really
given a lot of thought to such things. The embarassing truth is, I shoot
almost exclusively in "P" mode, and concentrate on composition! I the gear
is good (expensive!) enough, then it will do a very good job for you. Most
aspiring underwater photographers I have known who ended up giving up in
frustration were those who thought too much!

With a housed digital SLR and 2 good strobes, you have to be really, really
bad not to get SOME good pictures, in terms of quality. And as for
composition, all you have to do is do your best to copy the real masters,
get close, and shoot up :-)

There, my secret is out :-)

Bjorn