A sea turtle floats above me in the Caribbean Sea. Canon G11 at f/4 1/320 ISO 80

I hit the water and the warm inviting depths of the Caribbean sea envelope me. I take a moment to orient myself and dive down into the water. There isn’t much coral here, the water is deep and the bottom is sandy so I quickly pick up the movement. Coming up from the bottom is a sea turtle. It moves with incredible grace. The gentle slow sweep of its fins is mesmerizing and its pace and direction is so different from the darting fish that I have been seeing. Wonderful.

I went on a cruise a few years back and this was my first attempt at underwater photography. I got a underwater housing for my Canon G11 and it worked really well but there are some things to watch out for. I was only snorkeling so being able to sit in one place and line up a shot was difficult so I kept the zoomed out wide to try and make sure I would capture what I was aiming at. I also tried to get nice and close as the more water that there is between you and your subject the bluer the picture gets and the harder it is get a proper white balance. It's also nice to use the flash but if there is particulate in the water every single piece will reflect the flash back.

-Russell Berg