Martyn Guess is the latest photographer to join Scuba Travel’s pro line up. Having travelled extensively in pursuit of his own picture perfection, Martyn now shares his passion with intermediate photographers looking to progress from the basic techniques onto more challenging shots. As well as improving your photography underwater, Martyn’s workshops also focus on photo editing skills to help you produce perfect pictures to share and show off!
Martyn has been taking underwater photographs for nearly 20 years having first learnt some basic skills on a holiday in Grand Cayman. Whilst the images were pretty awful he was completely smitten with the UW Photography bug and with his love of diving set out to learn how to improve his fledgling knowledge. An introduction to Martin Edge at a BSOUP meeting was the precursor for a multitude of trips across the globe over the following years with the Edges together with his wife Sue. Whilst Martyn was honing his skills Sue was learning how to be an underwater model - something which she excels at although somewhat frustratingly for Martyn she is now an accomplished photographer in her own right ( she has won BSOUP and Photosub competitons) and getting her to model for him takes second place! The couple have travelled widely through Indonesia, taking in Bali, Komodo, Sulawesi, Raja Ampat, Ambon, and Wakatobi many of these places on numerous occasions. They have also travelled through the Philippines , PNG, The Andaman Islands in India as well as The Caribbean and Florida and Dijbouti and the Balearics and every year for the last 20 years to the Red Sea.
Martyn and Sue have also travelled extensively with Alex Mustard benefitting from Alex's huge skill base with recent trips to Bimini in the Bahamas, Anilao and Dumaguete as well as Tubbataha reef in the Philippines and the annual Mustard Whirlwind trips to the Red Sea
Martyn has won a multitude of annual competitions at BSOUP over the years including 2 first places and a second place in the last 5 years in the annual and prestigious Excellence portfolio competition. He recently won a major prize in the Raja Ampat Governments annual photography competition - which attracted entrants from all over the World.
Martyn is a perfectionist when it comes to underwater photography techniques and he willingly passes on his knowledge to photographers still trying to distinguish between a snoot and an ISO!! He will be able to help participants improve their photography and learn new techniques and will provide a very hands on approach both in the water and back on dry land. Most days there will either be presentations on a specific topic or group image reviews. Group post processing sessions will be encouraged. Martyn maintains that he learnt how to use Photoshop and Lightroom by picking up tips from other photographers on trips whilst they helped each other with their images.
"From my experience of going on these type of trips over the years you get out what you put in but having said that the guests are on holiday so if they prefer to nod off during a talk or not turn up because they didn't wake up after the last dive! its not an issue for me." "The other point to make is that this is a trip for photographers so the resort and I will ensure that we are in our own designated boats and put on the right sites at the right time of day and that we repeat the dive as many times as we want to if necessary so that we get the very best opportunity to build a great portfolio of images."
I found Martyn's short, informal, well-considered and clearly-delivered presentations to be excellent refresher classes – just what I needed. I like that Martyn consolidated latest techniques with the all-important basics, all in bite sized modules. - Mark H May 17
Dates: 04 May 2024 - 15 May 2024
Great photos cannot be rushed. Taking your time can make all the difference when it comes to great images. And that's the reason our pro photographers like to repeat dive sites. Photographers can go at their own pace on a photography itinerary that i... MORE
