If you do opt for the Grand Cayman trip, I'm the tripgoer organizing the lessons with Cathy Church. Myself and and Greg are already signed up for 10 hrs of instruction with a staffer at Cathy Church, on Sunday and Monday afternoon of the trip. This would be 2 5 hrs classes, including diving and hands on experience, with one class focused on macro and the other on wide angle. We're figuring roughly $450 each for these lessons. If you opt to join this trip and want to take lessons with us, let me know and I can try to add you to our existing schedule if you like. It will certainly be cheaper than negotiating your own by yourself. It may even reduce the price for Greg and I to add a third (or more) and re-divide the total cost!
For example, with staffers (instead of Cathy), the cost is $60/hr for one person, and $90/hr for two. I suspect adding a third would add an additional $30/hr, dropping the overall per person rate from $45/hr to $40. Its incremental, but anyway. Cathy herself is very expensive....we were quoted $125/hr for the first person, and if there were two it was $187/hr. As much as we wanted to learn directly from her, the price was a bit much for us to swallow, at nearly twice as much as a staffer. So instead of choosing to take just one class (to keep cost reasonable) we decided to go with staff for both lessons.
As Greg mentions, you can also opt to get your PADI Level 1 or Level 2 UW Photographer certification by taking these two lessons. There is an additional $40 fee to process the paperwork, but no additional instruction or payment beyond what you are already going to pay for the lessons + $40 is needed. Cool little bonus. Greg and I are probably doing that too.
Tina
edit to add some clarity: Please note that in order to be in the same lessons as Greg and I, you'd need to be working with a compact camera with manual control (as opposed to a DSLR). I shoot a Canon S90 in a Fix housing, for example. Cathy keeps these two types of cameras segregated in her classes because the approach and usage is different. It helps to keep each type of user getting the info they need. If you are shooting DSLR you'll need to be in your own classes.
Edited by libra89, 19 July 2011 - 01:57 PM.