The 2019 edition of the Reef Photo and Video Anilao Underwater Photo and Video Workshop wrapped up last week. This was the 6th annual Reef workshop in beautiful Anilao, Philippines. Each year we’ve been treated to some of the best diving in the world, with an astonishing assortment of underwater creatures for subjects. Our host was the idyllic Aiyanar Beach and Dive Resort. Chris Parsons filed daily reports from Anilao about the Workshop.
Peppermint Shrimp. Canon 100m macro with Nauticam SMC-1.
Day 2
Monday morning. Back to work. Ugh, right? Fortunately, our “work” here is getting to go diving in the most bio-diverse portion of ocean in the world.
In this workshop, we start each day off with a “morning briefing”. I give a short talk each day during breakfast, effectively multi-tasking so we make sure to leave plenty of time in everyone’s schedule to dive, dive, dive, plus download photos and just generally have a great time. This year, I’ve tried to make the morning briefings a little more interactive, with more feedback from guests and adding a daily “homework” assignment.
Being able to control the background is an important part of underwater photography, and we talk about how to do this in our workshops. Same subject, same time of day, just shot with different camera settings and strobe power.
Yesterday I got a request to move video talk up earlier in the week. As I mentioned, more interactive this year, so I split up my video presentation into a shooting part and an editing part, and gave the shooting part today. I then talked about lighting as I wanted to make sure to get to strobe positioning today. Being able to reduce backscatter by positioning strobes is one of the topics I get the most feedback on, so I wanted to present that information early in the week.
Shot with Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 100mm f/2.8L lens in Nauticam housing using Inon strobes.
The guests seem to be adjusting to the routine today (more like getting used to getting spoiled by the great staff here). Conditions so far have been very good. We’ve had some current on some dives, but generally it has not been a problem.
Shot using the Nauticam SMC-1.
Today’s creature highlights: Cardinal fish with eggs (two different species), seahorse (yellow), pygmy seahorse, and a small blueish green crab that I had not seen before.