Look around a dive boat — chances are the most experienced divers on board are the ones carefully cradling a spiderlike underwater photography rig. That’s because digital underwater photography is one of the most popular and rewarding pastimes you can spend underwater.

Carrying a camera while you dive not only lets you capture all the marine life you encounter, but it also motivates you to fine-tune buoyancy and air consumption, and it gives you a whole new perspective on the sport. A keen photographer can find a lifetime of wonder simply exploring the microcosm of a single coral head, and the pursuit of incredible images can lead you to the ends of the Earth.

Whether you have a penchant for photographing macro critters in the Coral Triangle or shark-feeding frenzies in the open somewhere like the Bahamas, the best way to get started is with PADI's Digital Underwater photographer specialty course. Designed as a beginner photography course that specifically addresses the challenges of shooting underwater, the Digital Underwater photographer specialty uses the PADI SEA method (which stands for shoot, examine and adjust), while offering an introduction to underwater photo equipment and helping you master buoyancy.

Where to Go: In underwater photography, good lighting can make all the difference, so to get the best results, consider taking your course at a destination like the Turks and Caicos, where the visibility is pristine year-round. grandturkscuba.com

Kadu Pinheiro

With rising sea temps and pollution taking their toll on coral, most divers know that the building blocks of our reefs are suffering. And many dive destinations have launched reef-restoration programs to help preserve corals like the endangered acropora (staghorn) corals.

Where to Go: At the iconic punta Cana Resort & Club in the Dominican republic, the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation is home to one of the largest coral-restoration programs in the Caribbean. And through the Coral First Aid distinctive specialty offered here, visiting divers can learn the fundamentals of reef restoration, and get hands-on experience in a coral nursery. The specialty offers an in-depth education about the risks facing corals and the methods being used to protect acropora from outright extinction. Divers also learn how to build nursery frames for growing corals in the field, and how to handle, transport and attach coral fragments. Once finished with the course, divers have the option to make a volunteer dive in a fully functioning coral nursery. bluevisionadventures.net

Mike Veitch

If you finished your Open Water certification, and you still can’t find your way back to the boat without surfacing, don’t worry; you’re not alone. Underwater navigation is one of the most important dive skills to learn, and it’s also one of the hardest to master. Depending on visibility and the terrain of the dive site, accurately finding your way underwater can require keen natural navigation, skillful compass navigation or a complex mix of the two.

“Every dive involves navigation,” Shreeves says. “When you can navigate well, you avoid long surface swims, you always know which way to go to head to your exit, and you use your air more efficiently.” By taking the Underwater Navigator specialty, you get the inside scoop on the techniques divemasters and instructors use to keep themselves oriented at all times.

Not only will you practice estimating distances and navigating patterns, but you’ll also get comfortable with compasses and dive-site maps.

Where to Go: This course is great to take through your local dive shop. low viz will actually better test your abilities. Once you learn to navigate a silty lake bed, finding your way around a Caribbean reef is a piece of cake. Heading out of town? South Florida’s sites include everything from shallow reefs to deep wrecks. prodiveusa.com

Andrew Sallmon

It’s no secret that divers love dive gadgets, especially ones that help them explore faster and farther underwater while conserving both air and energy. Enter: the PADI Diver Propulsion Vehicle specialty course.

"Learning to use the DPVs allows you to explore parts of the reefs that are unreachable without them,” says Emma Nicholsby, of Divetech on Grand Cayman. “You are able to cover more ground, allowing you the opportunity to see more of the reefs, walls and marine life on a single dive.”

But just like driving a scooter on land, they require a little training to enhance your comfort and safety, and to ensure that your ride doesn’t break down halfway through the dive. “By completing the PADI DPV specialty, you learn from our instructors the important safety factors when diving with DPVs, reef etiquette and how to control your scooter,” Nicholsby says.

Where to Go: Grand Cayman’s Divetech dive center is an ideal place for DpV diving, and it offers the PADI DPV specialty course, guided DPV dives and DPV rentals. Vast undersea walls offer a seemingly endless backdrop for your ride, and the gin-clear waters make it easy to see where you’re going. “A must is our signature West Bay Express DPV dive,” Nicholsby says. “Enter the water with your guide from our Cobalt Coast shore location, and follow the contour of the wall on a one-way trip toward lighthouse point. There is so much to see during this dive: turtles, eagle rays, green morays and, of course, the famous Cayman walls.” divetech.com

David Fleetham

Stuart Cove’s dive center in the Bahamas has long been a leader in the world of shark diving. Cove pioneered the shark-feeding dive experience, and today his shark feeds remain some of the most popular in the world. So it’s no coincidence that Cove also developed one of the first Shark Awareness distinctive specialty courses. “The goal of this course is to introduce divers to sharks and to educate them on the important role sharks play in a healthy ecosystem,” Cove says. if you’re planning to visit Stuart Cove's and join the shark-feeding dives, it's convenient and easy to incorporate the specialty.

Where to Go: The dive center can even provide a training DVD so you can complete the academic portion of the course before arriving for the two-tank shark certification dives. The Shark Awareness specialty is also the first step in Cove’s Shark Feeder program, a more involved course that lets you take charge of the chum bucket. stuartcove.com

Courtesy Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas

No amount of day diving can prepare you for the thrill and challenge of descending onto a reef under the cover of darkness. “You learn that the dark isn’t scary and that a day of diving doesn’t have to end when the sun goes down,” Shreeves says. After dark, the usual fish slip into the corals to rest as nocturnal predators like octopuses and lobsters come out to play. And if you’ve never seen psychedelic displays of bioluminescent plankton exploding across a darkened reefscape, you’re in for a treat.

But diving in the dark requires extra equipment — flashlights, tank markers and entry/exit lights — not to mention specialized hand signals and top-notch navigation. Taking the plunge with an experienced instructor is a great way to get the hang of it.

A Night Diver specialty course is one of the best continuing-education decisions you can make in your dive career. The class includes three night dives, during which you’ll learn everything from how to communicate with other divers using your flashlight underwater to safe entry and exit techniques, and how to navigate in the dark. Most PADI centers and instructors offer the Night Diver specialty, and awesome night dives can be found around the world, from the temperate waters of Seattle to critter-rich reefs in the South pacific.

Where to Go: Bonaire is an ideal destination for a Night Diver class, thanks to its abundance of shore dives and house reefs at resorts like Buddy Dive, which means your night dive time isn’t limited to the boat schedule. buddydive.com

Andrew Sallmon

One of the most unusual, hard-to-find creatures in the ocean is the mola mola, or ocean sunfish, but there is one place where divers can reliably see them.

The Mola Mola Awareness specialty is supported by PADi’s Project AWARE, and is designed to teach divers about the biology of the rare fish and how to dive with them responsibly.

“My first encounter with the mola mola left me in awe of this magnificent, elusive, yet little-understood marine creature,” says Paul Spratt, the instructor who created the Mola Mola Awareness specialty course at Lembongan Dive center in Bali. “I had more questions about them than answers, so I started researching their behavior and the best ways to interact with them. I created the specialty to share my findings with fellow divers.”

Where to Go: “Bali has the most recorded mola mola sightings per annum worldwide,” says Spratt. “Cold-water upwellings around Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Ceningan and Nusa Penida bring them up from deep water to the vibrant reefs where they get cleaned by the reef fish.”

The course includes presentations and two open-water dives. “this enables divers to have a mola mola dive in a safe, passive manner,” Spratt says. tamarinddivers.com

Rita Sellares/Fundemar/Puntacana Ecological Foundation

Driving through the tiny Missouri town of Bonne Terre, there’s little indication of the vast, water-filled maze that stretches hundreds of feet below the ground. Once the world’s largest lead mine, today Bonne Terre Mine is a divers playground, where flooded rooms and shafts comprise dozens of dive trails, offering exploration experiences to last a lifetime. A great way to get acquainted with the dive scene here is through the Mine Diver distinctive specialty. “The class offers divers an in-depth look at the history of the mine, and a personalized dive experience with a focus on the skills needed for diving here,” explains Bonne Terre Mine training director Scott Fritz. “We work on good buoyancy and multilevel dive planning in cold-water conditions.”

Where to Go: During the course, divers take a walking tour of the mine, and make two dives along underwater trails littered with historic artifacts like a mine carts, a steam-powered jackhammer, shovels and train tracks. 2dive.com/btm.htm

Andy Morrison

Many PADI distinctive specialties are designed as an introduction to a unique dive experience, and that’s certainly what divers will find when they head to the deserts of Utah for a course on diving geothermal pools with a Hot Spring Diver specialty. “While Utah is landlocked, and the second driest state in the U.S., we have hot springs all over,” says dive instructor Jon Rusho, who authored the specialty course. “Many are small and shallow, but several have become popular dive sites.”

Where to Go: At Homestead Crater, divers will find a massive natural hot tub beneath a rock dome. The pool is 65 feet deep, and daylight streaming from a hole in the top of the cavern gives the mineral-laced water an electric-blue appearance. “The Crater is an easily accessible dive site with great facilities,” Rusho says. “In the course, divers learn about the environment and safe-diving practices in a hot spring — the most important safety consideration is making sure you don’t overheat while diving in the 95-degree water.” diveutah.com

Ty Sawyer

Diving the deeper half of the recreational diving limits — from 60 to 130 feet — can seem both seductive and daunting to a new diver. On a reef wall, it’s easy to slip into the inky-blue depths without even noticing, and many of the best ship- wreck dives lie in deep, open waters.

“As we drop below 60 feet, our air consumption goes up, our no-stop time goes down, our buoyancy declines, and we begin to feel the effects of nitrogen narcosis,” Shreeves says. “None of these are hard to deal with, but you have to know how to manage them.”

The PADI Deep Diver course is the best way to log some deep dives under the watchful eye of an instructor. Not only does the class include four deep dives, but it also introduces you to new equipment, like backup air tanks, and teaches you how to plan for and manage problems when the surface is no longer a few fin kicks away.

“The Deep Diver course opens the door to wrecks, walls and other sites in the 60- to 130-foot range,” Shreeves says, “including some of diving’s top spots that you might otherwise miss.”

Where to Go: Standards say deep dives should be at least 60 feet, but to get the most from the experience, it’s a good idea to pair the Deep Diver course with a trip to a destination like St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin islands, where the north shore features a dramatic coral-covered wall that drops thousands of feet, within swimming distance of the beach. stcroixscuba.com

Courtesy PADI