Hi aneal321.
The good news is that you’re already familiar with camera settings, so that’s one less thing to think about. And I’m assuming you’re already using a ND/PL filter? (We use the Polar Pro ND/PL set.)
My second point would be to acknowledge that a certain amount of nervousness is actually healthy. We don’t fly our
P4P+ for fun, only for work. And we’ve yet to have a crash. Healthy nervousness keeps you on your toes, reducing the chances of sloppiness or complacency.
As others have said, flying in canyons and/or mountainous terrain is fraught with additional dangers because there are more variables. The only specific worry with flying over water is “don’t descend too quickly” as the perspective can be potentially deceptive.
I think the step by step approach has a lot of merit, gradually building up experience and “confidence” (which doesn’t actually exist, but is a useful/quick descriptive word).
Wind would be my biggest concern, although less so than in mountainous terrain where it can be more complicated. Don’t fly at first if the wind is too strong. And make sure you know if you’re heading out with the wind because it will be tougher/longer getting back flying against a headwind.
One final point: capturing stills or video using a drone will never be the same to a professional photographer as shooting from a solid tripod. Our brains are hard-wired to the latter (tripod) as the norm, simply because that’s what we’ve done and do thousands of times. That said, drones allow us a different perspective that we could only otherwise get from a light aircraft or helicopter (or similar) at much more expense. Indeed, some images can only be achieved by drone. To repeat: healthy nervousness is a good thing. In addition to combating sloppiness and complacency, it helps with achieving better performance. “Having fun” and “relaxing” are massively overrated. Fulfilment through stretching yourself and achieving higher potential is far better.
For any specific technical questions about stills photography over water, I’d ask Meta4 - especially about shooting commercial ships.
All the best.