While serving as the Executive Editor of Dive Training magazine, I’ve had the pleasure of editing Marty Snyderman’s underwater photography columns for more than 20 years. I can honestly say that along the way I’ve learned a lot from him. Marty has a way of breaking down even the most complicated instructions into a few simple and easy-to-follow steps. Many underwater photographers are masters at their craft, but not all are great teachers. Marty is both. (He’s also fun to dive with.)

~ Cathryn Castle Garcia
C2G2Productions.com

Marty Snyderman conducted two, day-long workshops for our club and other area underwater photographers. Each workshop was attended by over 35 underwater photographers of all different experience and skill levels. Marty’s workshops were both prepared in a logical, first step to last, method. Every topic covered was presented in clear, easy to understand, language with accompanying photographs to help him illustrate and make his points. Every attendee was made to feel as though they were special, and their questions were answered completely. Each question was answered without the attendee feeling as though they imposed upon Marty or slowed his schedule. When Marty first arrives, he comes as a guest speaker. But when he is finished, he leaves everyone as a friend. Over the years, we have had several guest speakers give full day workshops, so we have a good idea of what constitutes a great speaker. With that in mind, we give Marty the highest of recommendations.

Barry Guimbellot President and Co-Founder Dallas Underwater Photographic Society

By Tracy Candish, avid diver and underwater photographer and a yoga and wellness meditation teacher:

I met and dove with Marty Snyderman when he was a Photo Ambassador during my dive vacations in 2016, 2017 & 2018 at Atlantis Resorts in the Philippines. On each trip, Marty was ready and willing to help me with what seemed to be his limitless knowledge about how to improve my photography skills. He specifically taught me how to reprogram my “back button focus” on my housing (life changing!), to be conscious and practice etiquette when shooting both the creature and awareness for the next photographer and a VERY memorable personal slide show of his work in order to view examples of how composition matters. Marty’s teaching skills were put to the ultimate test, in my eyes, when teaching me how to read and use a histogram. After lunch one day, using a napkin and a pen, he skillfully and simply blew my mind! Marty’s passion for photography along with his desire to share all his knowledge in a way that is easy, fun and most important understandable, is what sets him apart. I can’t wait for my next lesson!

“From my experience what sets Marty apart from other teachers is his passion for photography and his skill to take you from Novice to Expert photographer so quickly!”

He taught me in a very easy and understandable way to customize my housing buttons, which was life changing by the way, to understand how important composition is by showing me his photos, to be conscious of etiquette when shooting creatures and keep in mind the next photographer to come along AND teaching me how to read and use the dreaded “Histogram” I use all these skills to this day and they have made me a better and more comfortable photographer.

Tracy Candish

Marty’s teaching Skills by Sergio Coni:

I will call my experience with Marty “Photographer’s Luck”. Having been in the Dive Industry for many years, I have heard of Marty Snyderman and enjoyed his work. Lucky me, I shared with him many dives, breakfasts, lunches and dinners at Atlantis Resorts where he is a Photo Ambassador. Being the passionate diver and photographer that he is, each conversation was a learning experience which shed light on how to improve my photography, along with remembering not to tilt my camera over the subject and how to master wide angle shots. I truly hope our paths cross again and I can continue my learning.

“I love the simplicity of Marty’s explanations. Not a teacher but a Photo Guru. I experienced my improvement immediately during my dives!”

Sergio Coni is Operations Manager for Don Foster's Dive in Grand Cayman for the last 32 years.

Sheila Ott, avid diver and underwater photographer

I’ve known Marty since 2013, when I participated in Yap’s Mantafest for the first time. I entered that year in the compact class and I had just started to shoot in the manual mode. It was Marty Snyderman who patiently sat with me poolside one on one and showed me how to use my little Sea & Sea. It was through his openness and approachability I felt confident enough to upgrade to a DSLR the following year. Marty’s easily understandable and methodical teaching style works well with both absolute beginners to well established underwater photographers. I most definitely consider him to be a very critical part of my photographic development and very often find myself thinking underwater, now how would Marty Snyderman shoot this? I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to reach out for his advice today!

Sheila Ott

David Fleetham, one of the world’s more highly regarded and widely published underwater photographers

Hundreds of divers have been fortunate enough to have the chance to learn underwater photography with Marty Snyderman. I met Marty through mutual friends in California many years ago and we have worked together on many photography events over the last twenty years. I have been constantly impressed by his exceptional ability to convey complex ideas in simple understandable terms. Additionally, his bright and jovial personality has always improved the mood in any teaching circumstance. I would highly recommend Marty for a chance to improve your underwater shooting skills.

David Fleetham

I had the pleasure of joining Marty on the 2019 Atlantis ImageMakers trip to the Atlantis Resorts in the Philippines. As someone totally new to underwater imagemaking, and photography in general, I was super nervous to be with the likes of Marty, and other experts within the field. However, Marty quickly made me realize my nervousness was unfounded as he was super approachable, with a great sense of humour. More importantly however, he made the fundamental concepts of underwater photography very understandable, and he taught me to how to recognize the environmental factors that will affect a shot. In and out of the water he was constantly helping me learn how to make the necessary adjustments to improve my shots, and he provided tips regarding how to configure my gear, position my strobes, and set my ISO, aperture, shutter speed etc. This made me think critically of each action in terms of improving my technique, and in terms of recognizing the changes I had to make to achieve the shot that I wanted. My photographs have improved leaps and bounds after learning these fundamentals from Marty, and I am so grateful!

Neha Acharya-Patel
2019 North American Rolex Scholar ®
Our World Underwater Scholarship Society
BSc Biology
University of British Columbia