Or visit us on the web www.diveworldwide.com 9UNderwAter PHOtOGrAPHYTop Tips from Beneath the WavesThe sea holds a real fascination for most people, bringing a sense of serene calm and relaxation to all, whether walking alongside it, snorkelling on its surface or even scuba diving beneath the waves.Waterproof digital compact cameras make underwater photography fun and easy for all members of the family and you don't need to be a diver to take fabulous underwater photographs. It took me three years to get over my fear of being a scuba diver, and during this time, I snorkelled my way around the world following my passion for sharks, whales and dolphins. To take great pictures, make sure that the built-in fl ash is switched off (otherwise you may get undesirable red blobs in your photos), take your camera off 'Automatic Mode' and choose a Film Speed of 200 to keep your pictures nice and sharp. Then all you need to do is get as close to your subject as possible, keep your fi nger pressed halfway down to focus on your subject, and 'snap' when ready.If you are looking to venture a little deeper beneath the waves, the underwater mode is fantastic when you are between 1.5 and 7m. Again, remember to keep the fl ash switched off and get as close as you can to your subject, whilst remembering to be careful of the coral and marine life around you. Getting underneath or level with your subject can really give it more impact, but this always depends on what your subject is and where it is positioned! As red is the fi rst colour to be lost underwater, your photographs can appear more blue than you were expecting. A simple way to overcome this is to use your camera's manual white balance feature, or you could invest in an external fl ashgun to replace lost colour and enhance the beautiful red, pink and purple corals and vibrant fi sh life. Wherever you travel, even the simplest digital compact camera can give you stunning results to share with your family and friends and cherish forever.Maria is the fi rst person in the UK to specialise in teaching both beginners and advanced users how to take award-winning underwater photographs with digital compact cameras. She has been featured in 18 magazines worldwide and runs underwater photography courses in Bromley, Kent - her guests have won prizes both here and abroad. If you would like to travel with Maria for expert advice on photography please contact us.Maria's new book "Underwater Photography for Compact Camera Users" is available to buy online from 14 July 2010 on the Ocean Visions website.Book your course now! Maria is offering a 10% discount on introductory photography courses in Bromley to anyone who has travelled with Dive Worldwide in the past 12 months. Valid until 30 September 2010. "wherever you travel, even the simplest digital compact camera can give you stunning results to share with your family and friends and cherish forever."by Maria Munn

10 Talk to an expert 0845 130 6980My diving heaven and hellBy Simon rogerson, editor of 'dIVe' magazine, Britain's best-selling scuba publicationHeavenI have always been fascinated by the Galapagos Islands. The land wildlife is astounding, and the marine environment is a current-fuelled wonderland of beasts and super beasts. In 2007, I was diving around Darwin, the northernmost island of the archipelago, and the sea was thick with pelagics. I swam with turtles, eagle rays and sea lions, but the highlight was getting close to a scalloped hammerhead, a threatened species that is notoriously shy of divers. Drifting in the current, I watched a dense school of hammerheads below me, silhouetted against the white sand. Incredible!HellWeirdly enough, hell came soon after that heavenly dive. I was separated from my group, then a current caught me at the surface and blew me far off the site. I had an hour and a half wait before the boat found me, during which I was buzzed by silky sharks. At one point, some bottlenose dolphins came to check me out and the silkies fl ed. I've never been so glad to see a dolphin!travel ritualsI generally enjoy the routines of travel. I arrive early at the airport, enjoy a decent meal, mooch the shops, maybe have a massage. I always take noise-cancelling headphones, because escaping the background hum of the aircraft (and the other passengers) makes it easier to relax. Once I arrive, it's all about 'Covering the Story', and the return journey is a time to review notes and process photographs.Marine conservation has to catch up and quickly, especially when you consider that 80 per cent of global fi sh stocks are either fully exploited or depleted and that the prediction is that the world will 'run out of fi sh' by 2048. Quite simply, we're eating fi sh quicker than they can reproduce and over-fi shing, prompted by over-consumption, has become the single biggest threat to the marine environment. That's why Bite-Back is running some innovative campaigns to highlight the issues and prompt retailers to re-think the fi sh they sell in favour of the marine environment.It's a formula that's working. Already ASDA, Sainsbury's, Somerfi eld, Tesco and Waitrose have adopted some of Bite-Back's recommendations by choosing to no longer sell species including shark, swordfi sh, marlin and monkfi sh.You see, for me and millions of scuba divers around the world, sharks, dolphins, turtles and coral reefs are our lions, leopards and underwater forests and worthy of equal protection and reverence.Please join in at www.bite-back.comThe Race is on...despite some ongoing advancement it's easy to argue that marine conservation is about 30 years behind its land-based equivalents. Somehow fi sh and marine habitats simply don't have it going on for them the same way as lions, tigers, elephants and rainforests do. Have you got a fantastic underwater image that you think should be published? Well here is your chance to get your images in print and online. The winning photograph will be published in our 2011 Dive Worldwide brochure and on the web site. Win a Powergorilla laptop charger. This portable gadget will work with devices up to 24volts and will give you an extra 2 to 5 hours of power depending on your laptop specifi cation and over 20 hours on various other electronic devices from your mobile to your iPod. Perfect for travellers like yourselves! The competition closes on 3 September 2010 and all entries should be emailed sarah@diveworldwide.comPlease note. No images supplied in hard copy will be accepted, only high resolution digital fi les will be accepted. All entries must be correctly labelled with your name, contact details and the location each image was taken. Entries will not be returned. While we endeavour to publish as many photo competition entries as possible in our brochure we cannot guarantee that all will make the pages. While the photographer retains the copyright of all images submitted as competition entries, Dive Worldwide reserve the right to unlimited use of the photos for company brochures, promotion and advertising.Digital Underwater Photography Competition