With calm, clear water and year-round great weather, Cayman is the ultimate underwater photographer's studio and each year, thousands come to these islands to capture the incredible natural beauty found beneath the surface. Having the right environment, however, is not, by itself enough to get great pictures, the photographer must have a grasp of the fundamentals too, so we have gathered the top ten pointers that will help improve your images and allow you to take home 'keepers' rather than shots that you'll throw away. 

1. Choose the right equipment and know what your equipment can do!
Unfortunately, underwater photography is equipment intensive, often requiring specific equipment for specific shots. One of the basic mistakes novices make is trying to make one lens shoot all types of shots - it just doesn't work that way. Learn what your collection of lenses can do and use them for those shots. Remember, to shoot wide angle images, you need a wide angle lens. If you don't have all the lenses you need, Cayman has a number of Photo Centers that can rent them to you, along with instruction in their use.

2. Stay close!
We all admire those beautiful reefscapes that we see in the magazines, all of which are shot with wide angles. If you only have a standard lens, the urge is to move backwards to include more in the shot, as you would on land. Underwater this doesn't work, however. The more distance (and therefore water) that you put between the subject and the camera, the more suspended particles also accumulate and these only serve to reduce the sharpness of the image. Also by moving further from the subject you reduce the power of the strobe to show color. The best distance between the camera and subject is usually around three feet. If you aren't able to get enough subject matter into the shot, the answer is not to move back, but to change to a wider lens that can include more subject at the same 3 foot distance.

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