I don't carry much while in Hawaii, but I always have my Olympus TG-1 iHS compact camera in my swim trunks' pocket. It's at home both topside for colorful sunsets and in the clear water for turtles and fish.

Sea turtle in the waters of the North Shore, Oahu. Photos by Derrick Story.

The thing I like about Olympus Tough cameras is that they're excellent picture takers, compact, and record GPS data to help me remember where I captured the shots. The Jpegs clean up pretty well in Aperture. I usually start with Auto Levels (color), then adjust as needed from there.

I can generally recover enough highlight and shadow detail to get the image where I want it. The f/2.0 lens on my TG-1 (same lens on the newer TG-2) is perfect for snorkeling in clear water. I can keep the ISO at 100 and still have a fast enough shutter speed for speedy fish.

So all that's left is finding clear water filled with lots of fish. Well, that part is actually much harder than deciding which camera I'm going to use.

Aperture Tips and Techniques

To learn more about Aperture, check out my Aperture 3.3 Essential Training (2012) on lynda.com. Also, take a look at our Aperture 3 Learning Center. Tons of free content about how to get the most out of Aperture.

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