Week 10 of 52
I Got Duped
There’s a twist to this story, and I’ll tell you right now what that is:
I duped MYSELF.
I tricked myself into believing that I needed to be certified as an underwater photographer in order to take underwater photographs.
So for the last six weeks I’ve been in a $400 SCUBA class to attain that certification.
This morning I completed the class by taking an online test.
Then I got a “congratulations” message and a little certification card and I thought… “wait, now what do I do with this?”
You see, I learned photography years ago, but assumed underwater photography was a lot different.
It’s not.
There are differences, like, you need waterproof stuff that’ll allow you to take your camera underwater. Also, light and colors appear/act differently in water than they do in air.
But that’s not all that complicated to understand, in fact EVERYTHING I’d need to understand about how underwater photography differs from normal photography could fit onto a pamphlet.
In SCUBA, I had already learned all of the basics through taking an Open Water course, Advanced Open Water course, and Master Open Water course.
So if I understand both SCUBA and photography, why did I feel the need to get certified?
I just wasn’t thinking. That’s all.
I assumed I needed an underwater photo cert, almost like, “maybe there’s legal requirements” or “maybe this cert will be necessary at some point in the future.”
And I wonder how many of the people that I know who are currently in college are mainly there for that same reason?
Simply. Not. Thinking.
A quote from my journal this week,
“All you need is the ability to dive and the ability to take photos underwater, no need for a cert - should have put my money towards gear (because gear is expensive!!)”
I should’ve just spent a couple hours on Google getting to the bottom of this before spending $400 and 6 weeks of my time on a minimalistic course and a fancy piece of plastic😭.
Cam
