Digital Jam - Grand Cayman 2005
Finally I have recovered from my birthday! And have a chance to share my personal thoughts from the Digital Jam week!
Digital Jam was an island wide digital photography week organised by US magazine Dive Chronicles. In this first year there were 30 participating photographers. I was the event's host at the East End of the island - diving with Ocean Frontiers based at the Compass Point resort.
I was very excited about the event - but I was also very unsure how it would go as it was the first time I had officially taught underwater photography. DigiJam was never planned as a "course" - it was to be a week of photographer friendly diving with a couple of evening lectures about advanced techniques and a host on hand to give advice (me).
But my thinking changed for two reasons. First I spoke to the particants who were keen to learn as much as possible. I also spoke to my friend Steve Warren of Ocean Optics in London. He said the main feedback he gets from his customers about courses is that they don't feel that the "pro" teaches them enough and they feel that the pro is more interested in their own photography and is holding back many of the key secrets. Whether this is true or not. I changed my plans and decided to provide everything I could for the guests - afterall they could always opt out if they didn't fancy a dive, a pool session, an evening lecture or a late night photo critique session on the laptop.
I decided to teach uw photography from the beginning - and wasn't really influenced by others as I had never been on a photography course. I wrote a series of lectures starting from the first principles of controlling light. I didn't want to teach people formulaic ways of shooting - "this is how you do macro" etc. Instead I talked about how to control, manipulate and exploit the different types of lighting underwater. My argument was that if you understand how to control light you can create the lighting you desire in any circumstances. Everyone felt that this approach was very helpful. I also taught a technical approach that was entirely digital. The way I advocated constructing images could only be done on a digital camera - and I think that this new approach really demystified many of the common problems of learning underwater photography.
One of the pleasures of the week was being completely in charge of where the diveboat was going! We went to all my favourite sites! And more importantly often dove consecutively on the same site so that people could change lens and go back and nail a subject they had spotted. I also organised a few special treats - it is easy to get a dive centre to do what you want when you have a full boat of guests! I also admit I really enjoyed teaching and helping people. It was hard work - many late nights and early starts - but it was fun and satisfying.
The real highlight of the week was to see how well my team did in the award ceremony. The gang won 6 of the 7 categories - with prizes including trips to PNG, Wakatobi and the Bahamas. As well as kit including an underwater metal detector and a dive computer. And since getting back I have recieved a number of very complimentary emails thanking me for my help during the week. And I am very grateful that all the best photographers came on my week and won all the prizes and made me look good!
Digital Jam was deemed a great success for its first year (so soon after Hurricane Ivan) and a much bigger event is due to be announced in a few weeks for next January.
You can read a report on the week on the Ocean Frontiers website:
http://www.oceanfrontiers.com/_/CIDres/PGNac-digi_jam
And you can see the winning images on the Dive Chronicles website (turn the pages of the book to see more images!):
http://www.divechronicles.com/mainfinal1.html
Alex
Finally one of the participants, Ingvar Eliasson is planning to post a more detailed and personal report of the week on Digideep.com by the end of the week.
