Meeting #4 with Lauren Mezzanotte & FINstitute President, Aliah Banchik
Responsible Shark Ecotourism & Underwater Photography (+ Adobe Lightroom Workshop!)
LAUREN MEZZANOTTE
HUGE thank you to Lauren Mezzanotte for walking up at 3:15 am just to Zoom in from the states to give our club a very passionate talk about the role of ecotourism in shark conservation. Be sure to check out this awesome guide to Best Practices for Shark and Ray Ecotourism curated by the WWF, PADI Aware and Manta Trust to dive a bit deeper into Lauren’s talk.
As promised, email Lauren at Lmezzanotte@recssummit.org with any questions!
Some highlights from her talk included:
Learning about some of the different ways in which responsible ecotourism benefits scientific research
Learning that “provision sites” are not just areas where baited shark dives occur but ALSO any site where fish scraps are dumped (ie: docks, fishing boats, etc.)
FINstitute Founder & President, ALIAH BANCHIK
Shoutout to our President, Aliah Banchik, for teaching a crash course intro into underwater photography and for leading a workshop on Adobe Lightroom! Some highlights from her talk included:
Running through the basics of underwater photography (UWP), including types of cameras available, recommended gear bundles, and basic settings for those shooting in manual mode
Participating in an Adobe Lightroom workshop and getting to turn green/blue pictures into vibrant, lively photographs!
Getting to take some test pictures with Aliah’s full underwater setup (it is much heavier on land than most expected!)
NOTE FROM ALIAH
There are sooooo many useful guides and YouTube videos out there to help you decide what gear is best for you and how to edit photos… here are some of my faves
Backscatter—> cameras/underwater housings
Reef Photo & Video—> cameras/underwater housings (US)
Digital Diver—> underwater housings (AUS)
These three companies are godsent…Feel free to give them a call to chat about what you’re looking for… Especially Reef Photo & Video. They rock!
They have a bunch of gear guides/recommendations as well as tutorial videos so I highly recommend using them as a resource:)
I am also always happy to talk cameras and editing with you and trust me, I have SO much more to say on the topic than what I was able to cover in 45 minutes, so reach out to me if you want to go over something…more than happy to chat!
aliah.banchik@my.jcu.edu.au
aliah@naked4nature.com
