Wetpixel Picture of the Year 2011 results announced
Wetpixel's Picture of the Year 2011 competition has now finished. Many thanks to all who voted for their favorite images and it is great to have had so strong a response to all the images. The winner, who will receive a trip on Solmar V as a prize, is Alexis Tabah, with his turtle hatchling in Snell's window. Second prize went to Nicholas Samaras, third to Dany Weinberg, fourth to Stephen Holinski and fifth to AlexTattersall. They will all receive prizes from Ikelite, Nauticam USA or Reef Photo and Video.
The competition has received a staggering amount of public interest, with the winning images getting over 2,500 votes each. Congratulations to all Picture of the Week winners, and especial congratulations to the winners of Picture of the Year 2011.
Tristan is a PADI Dive Master and has had a life long passion for all things underwater. Being a photographer, there was a natural progression to underwater photography.
Apart from wrecks, reefscapes and fish, Tristan has also undertaken work for clients wanting to showcase their underwater equipment
Tristan is working on building a comprehsnisve photographic database of British Marine life, although this side project will take many years to complete.
New World publications has just released the second in its series of ebooks: The Reef Creature Identification: Tropical Pacific guide has joined its sister publication, Reef Fish Identification: Tropical Pacific, and is now available in Blio format for Android, iPad, iTouch, iPhone and Windows PC computers. It features sixteen hundred species of marine invertebrates, which are searchable in the app via a page specific table of contents and a scrolling toolbar.
The app is now available on Blio in the US, Canada and Mexico, and should be rolling out to the UK soon. It is priced at $29.95.
It’s time to vote for your favorite photographer based
on all of their images
Between the months of January and May, the Epson Red Sea 2012 Online Competition will take place. Each month during the competition, amateur and professional photographers from all over the world are invited to submit a portfolio of 3 digital photos. By the end of each month, 3 photographers will be announced as the winners of that particular month, chosen both by the public and by an international panel of 5 judges.
An online competition among all the monthly winners (15 photographers) will then begin on June 1st, 2012. Online voters and the panel will eventually select one of the competitors as the “Photographer of the Year”.
Flights, accommodation (BB) and diving expenses will all be covered for the Photographer of the Year, in order to enable this winner to participate at the Epson Red Sea 2012 shoot-out in Eilat.
The 8th annual Epson Red Sea competition will be held on November 4-10, 2012, in Eilat. Innovative categories and some very worthy prizes are planned for this year, making it very much worthwhile to be elected as the Photographer of the Year.
Volume 3 of Guide to Andrea and Antonella Ferrari's Guide to Tropical Marine Fish is now available from the iTunes store. The guide will eventually encompass 8 apps for iPhone and iPad. Each app comprises an archive of 100 different tropical fish species, and aims to allow a full immersion into the reality of the underwater tropical marine universe. Within the app, each species has a full-screen zoomable high-quality photo and a fully detailed info file describing common and scientific names, distribution, size, habitat, color, pattern, life habits and identification features.
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 4.3 or later, the app costs just $2.99.
This was my first diving trip to Scotland. We were accompanying Alex Mustard on one of his 2020 Vision photographic assignments to the Inner Hebrides (www.2020v.org), with the aim of photographing Basking Sharks. This short film is a trip report of how it went. Nature being nature does not appear to order. The scenery and wildlife of the islands was stunning and the week was topped by the appearance of the Basking Sharks. Definitely somewhere I want to dive again in the future.
The next meeting of the East Midlands Underwater Photographers (EMUP) takes place on Tuesday 6th March downstairs in Nemo's Bar, at Stoney Cove (map) at 7:30 sharp. All pub facilities will be open so refreshments will be on hand
An evening with Maria Munn
Multi award-winning underwater photographer and award-winning author, Maria Munn is the first person in the world to design tailor-made, underwater photography courses for all makes of compact cameras. Competition: Underwater Excellence (3 shots)
Submit three images to demonstrate excellence (up to you how to interpret that). There doesn't need to be a theme, but looking at the BSoUP competition variety tends to help.
Paul is Vice President of the Royal Geographical Society and Chair of the Expeditions and Fieldwork Division. He is an expert polar, exploration and field science consultant. He is currently working on his new BBC TWO documentary for broadcast in March 2012.
Paul's television presenting credits include; Britain's Secret Seas, Oceans, Voyages of Discovery, Take One Museum, Meltdown, Wind and Scrapheap Challenge.
Paul is scheduled to speak at BSoUP on 17th October 2012
For more about Paul and for details of these and other venues and dates please visit www.paulrose.org/
NUPG - Next Meeting
Monday 12th March
The next meeting of the Northern Underwater Photography Group (NUPG) is on Monday 12th March at the Gurkha Grill in West Didsbury (map).
The talk will be by Nick and Caroline on their recent road trip in Florida, the competition theme is "animal behaviour" and there will be a new feature: Ken's photoshop Corner.
Please send in an image you would like to improve and Ken will talk through the photoshop technique. It should be a good one - we hope to see you there.
March is hotting up (well maybe not in the weather sense) - The NUPG Winter Splash-in will be on the 17th March in North Wales. Find a buddy and get in and take some photos on this one day and you can enter the competition.
Macro Unrestricted Category - Gold
"Unwelcome Mouthguest"
Ningaloo Reef, Exmouth WA Australia by Ross Gudgeon.
Our World Underwater - Results
Congratulations to BSoUP Member Ross Gudgeon who won a Gold in the Macro Unrestricted Category in this year's 'Our World Underwater Competition with an image entitled "Unwelcome Mouthguest" taken on Ningaloo Reef, Exmouth WA Australia
Congratulations also to BSoUP Members Leena Roy, who won Silver
in the Compact Camera Category with an image entitled 'In the sky. Red Djibouti Crab"
taken in Djibouti, and Simon Spear who won Silver in the General category.
The Our World Underwater international underwater photography and video competition has become known as the "Superbowl" of underwater imaging events. The competition celebrates and highlights both art of underwater photography as well as the beauty of the ocean.
This year the celebrity panel of judges included Alex Mustard, Berkley White, Brian Skerry, Keri Willk and Matt Weiss. They went through thousands of images taken by novice to professional photographers from around the world.
$60,000 in prizes were awarded to the winners, who represented more than 15 countries. Congratulations to Jeffrey Hartog . who won Best of Show for his 1st place image from the Commercial, Conceptual and Fashion category.
Winners were announced live on stage during the Our World Underwater film festival in Chicago (February 17 and 18, 2012), and will be published by supporting media partners worldwide. You can enjoy the winning images below. Winning videos will also be broadcast as episodes on the iTunes-featured DiveFilm Podcast Video.
As with all UnderwaterCompetition.com events, 15% of entry proceeds will be donated to marine conservation efforts. The judges and staff at DivePhotoGuide.com and Wetpixel.com congratulate all the participants - the level of imagery was outstanding.
I first picked up a camera at the age of 8 and learned to dive at the age of 14 in the freezing reservoirs of the place where I grew up – South Wales. I am eternally grateful to the volunteers at the Cynon Valley Sub Aqua club who taught me to dive in their free time.
Following university I left for a year’s diving travel and came back 7 years later. I first headed for Egypt, working as a scuba instructor in the magical Red Sea, which is still one of my favourite places – a true “Corridor of Marvels”, as Cousteau once described this narrow, deep stretch of water. It was here that I got to take my first underwater images on an old Nikonos III amphibious camera.
My travels then took me to the Mediterranean and Caribbean, before embarking on a 3 year stint in the Maldives. It was a tough life, as you can imagine. My interest in photography stood me in good stead and I often found myself as guide to visiting photographers. This led to my own first break, when Germany’s “Unterwasser” magazine published a selection of my images in 1996. Subsequently my articles and images have been published internationally in magazines such as Ocean Geographic, DIVE, Tauchen and Scuba Diving as well as in newspapers such as the Times and the Telegraph. I have also contributed to numerous book projects, winning a number of awards along the way.
The Northern Underwater Photography Group (NUPG) are delighted to announce an evening with Martin Edge.
One of the UK's most respected underwater photographers and author of the world acclaimed book 'The Underwater Photographer' Martin will be giving a talk at the NUPG meeting in August.
We will be able to see some of his incredible images and learn what techniques were used to capture them. It will be a superb evening for all those interested in diving, the marine environment and for photographers of all levels.
NUPG meet at the Gurkha Grill in West Didsbury (map).
Free to NUPG Members, others £5.00.
Please join the NUPG Facebook Group and join the event or inform NUPG of how mnay of you will be attending so that we can ensure there are no disappointment on the night.
Elphinstone, Daedalus and Brothers - 15-22 June 2012
Nick and Caroline Robertson-Brown, Frogfish Photography
Fancy a live-aboard photo course in the Red Sea? BSoUP Members Nick and Caoline Roberston-Brown have organised a week long live-aboard out of Hurghada for the week of 15th June.
They are offering an INON level 1 course, less formal photography workshops and talks on marine biology.
The price is £749 plus flights, with a £50 discount to members of BSoUP, NUPG, EMUP or any other recognised society.
For further details, please click on the image (left) to download a pdf.
For other courses by BSoUP Members please see Courses
Macro Madness U/W Photo Workshop
Nuweiba, Red Sea - 26th June - 3rd July 2012
Adam Hanlon
Holiday Designers has teamed up with Wetpixel editor Adam Hanlon to offer a unique opportunity for underwater photographers.
They are offering a week long macro photography workshop with award winning professional underwater photographer Adam Hanlon to the Northern Red Sea resort of Nuweiba in June 2012.
Nuweiba is an ideal venue for the event as it has easy shore access to a small reef that boasts a large number of macro subjects. The ability to vary dive times and to dive the site multiple times will help ensure that participants get plenty of opportunities to refine techniques with Adam’s guidance.
Congratulations to Robert Bailey who was the winner of February's Focus On Competition with an image of a juvenile boxfish taken in the Red Sea. This BSoUP Member's only competition was on the theme 'Yellow'.
Congratulations also to Tony Baskeyfield and Anthony Holley who came second and third respectively with images of a Dorado taken in Desroches Island, Seychelles and a Nudibranch. Both Alan Smith and Georgette Douwma came 4th= with identical scores with images of a Fang Tooth Tiger Moray, taken in Poris, South Tenerife and a Yellow boxfish with a Cleaner shrimp, taken in Rinca, Komodo NP, Indonesia. Sixth place went to Dave Baker for his image of a Masked Butterflyfish taken in the Red Sea.
2nd - Tony Baskeyfield, Dorado, Desroches Island. Seychelles
3rd - Anthony Holley
Nudibranch
BSoUP Members only may view all of the entries in the Competition slideshow, but you will be asked to login if you haven't already done so this session.
If you were not one of the top six and would like to know how your scored, please contact Brian Pitkin.
Next month's competition category is the annual Theme Portfolio, which is open to BSoUP Members only.
Each photographer must submit a portfolio of six images on any theme. When submitting the portfolio, all six images should be laid out on a black background, 1400 pixels wide by 1050 pixels tall (at a resolution of 72 pixels/inch), organised in two rows of three images, and saved as a sRGB jpeg file. The overall image must be no taller than 1050 pixels and no wider than 1400 pixels. Larger images will be rejected by the server.
Details will be announced shortly when the competition opens and sponsorship is confirmed
Tropical Marine Fish Volume 3 for iTunes
Volume 3 of Guide to Andrea and Antonella Ferrari's Guide to Tropical Marine Fish is now available from the iTunes store. The guide will eventually encompass 8 apps for iPhone and iPad. Each app comprises an archive of 100 different tropical fish species, and aims to allow a full immersion into the reality of the underwater tropical marine universe. Within the app, each species has a full-screen zoomable high-quality photo and a fully detailed info file describing common and scientific names, distribution, size, habitat, color, pattern, life habits and identification features.
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 4.3 or later, the app costs just $2.99.
BSoUP Member Linda Pitkin has added another blog ' Getting fresh with mussels' to the 2020VISION website.
'Gail Butterill of the Environment Agency dipped her glass-bottomed bucket in the water and pointed out a cluster of Freshwater Pearl Mussels partly buried amongst the stones of the river bed. “This is one of the largest populations left in Europe” she told me enthusiastically. We were in the Ennerdale valley, a quiet spot on the western side of the Lake District, and Gail had led me to a secret site for this rare and protected species, where I could photograph the mussels for 2020VISION under her watchful eye.'...
The Underwater Observatory is the website of BSoUP member Anna James.
Anna James is a PADI Rescue Diver. She has travelled all over the world with her favourite waters being in South East Asia.
'As a child I grew up being constantly bombarded by the fantastic underwater pictures of my father, Alan James.'
In 2001 Anna qualified with a BA Honours in Film and Video production. She doubles her career as an Underwater Photographer with one as a Focus Puller (Camera Assistant) in film and television production. Her film career includes working on shows such as Doctor Who, Torchwood, New Tricks, The Street, and Hotel Babylon. With films including the soon to be released; Valhalla Rising, and current Christmas cinema hit; Nativity.
Cameraman Doug Allan will be speaking on "Stay Cool in the Cold" at 11.00 on Thursday 16 February at the Broadcast Video and Production Show, Earls Court, London. He will also be present with some of his camera equipment on the Cameras Underwater stand at the show before and after his presentation.
Michael Pitts, Crispin Sadler and Richard Bull will be presenting a panel discussion at the same event on 14 February entitled "How to get the most of working Underwater for Film and Television."
The Wildscreen Festival is the world's largest, most prestigious international wildlife and environmental film festival.
Held in Bristol, UK since 1982, the Wildscreen Festival has helped nurture and shape the natural history filmmaking industry as we know it today.
Attracting 550-plus delegates from over 40 countries, the week-long festival is a focal point for wildlife and environmental filmmaking excellence. Delegates come from around the world to hear the latest industry news, hone their skills, investigate emerging technologies and exchange ideas.
With over 100 separate events, the Festival provides a first class programme of thought provoking lectures and debates, film screenings, workshops and masterclasses. Playing host to industry heavyweights, the Festival is also an essential international marketplace. Films are bought and sold, commissions and collaborations established, and new talent is discovered. Tickets for this year's event go on sale in June.
Whatever the budget, wherever the location, we are looking for the most interesting, innovative, exciting and the very best films about the natural world. Further details at http://www.wildscreenfestival.org/
Digital Photography Review
Almost every week it seems one camera manufacturer or another launches a new model or adds new features to an existing model. The best way to keep up with all these new developments is via the Digital Photography Review. But perhaps you know a better website?
Alex Tattersall
Overall Winer of the BSoUP/DIVER Print Competition 2010
BSoUP Meeting - February
The next BSoUP meeting takes place on Wednesday, 15th February 2012at 7.30 for 8.00 p.m. at our usual venue the Holland Club, Imperial College, South Kensington, London, SW7 5BD. New and prospective new members will be welcomed from 7.30 p.m. See Welcome.
Alex Tattersall: Hot New Toys
Alex went to DEMA late last year and saw some clever things he is going to tell us about. Think of it as an Anne Summers party but a bit more geeky(!).
Focus On Competition: Yellow (anything alive under water that is yellow - fish, other marine animals or whatever you can find). The Competition is now closed. BSoUP Members only may view all of the entries in the Competition Slideshow, but you will be asked to login if you have not already done so this session.
Alex Tattersall: Different Tools for Different Jobs
Alex will talk about some of his favourite UW photo equipment, showing shots he has taken with different combinations of lenses, port setups and other useful gadgets. This should give the rest of us some useful ideas to go away and try out!
Alex learned to dive in Venezuela in 2000 although didn't really fall in love with the sea until going to Egypt in 2002. He became a Dive Master in Byron Bay Australia in 2003 and worked in Queensland and Western Australia guiding dives. He first picked up an underwater camera in 2006, an Olympus mju300 and was immediately hooked. He spent a year in Taiwan in 2007 and began helping a local underwater photography retailer as a means to practice Mandarin Chinese and to get discounted toys. After returning to the UK to finish his PhD in Chinese culture, to justify his repeated dive trips to his wife, he set up Underwater Visions, now UK distributor for Nauticam, Fisheye, iTorch, Cameq, Stix products. Alongside this, he also leads photography trips for Oonasdivers and Divequest, both keen supporters of BSoUP.
Wetpixel Associate Editor and BSoUP Member Alex Mustard has already had the opportunity to shoot (on land) with the new Nikon D800 SLR. One of the features of the new camera is in-camera processing of time-lapse projects. Alex's HD video below is straight out of the camera. The camera he was using was a pre-production model; production cameras' output may vary from it somewhat and please bear in mind that Vimeo applies compression to any video uploaded to it.
The images and footage were shot during Alex's underwater photography workshop in the Cayman Islands in January 2012.
Nikon has announced its second new full-frame dSLR of the year, the Nikon D800, and it's companion, the D800E, which will sit below the D4 at the high end of Nikon's DSLR line, offering more than twice the pixel density of the top-of-the-line D4. The D800's FX-format full-frame sensor captures 7360-by-4912-resolution images (36.15 megapixels). The Nikon D800 looks as though it will be a popular dSLR for videographers, thanks to manual exposure controls in video mode; 1080p recording at 30, 25, and 24 fps (as well as 720p video at 60 fps); and the ability to feed uncompressed video to a monitor or recording device via HDMI as it's being captured.
The Nikon D800 should start appearing in stores in March at $2995 for the body only. The Nikon D800E will arrive in April. The D800E has the same sensor as the D800, but will eliminate the D800's integrated low-pass filter; Nikon says the filter-less D800E will provide a further boost to detail and image resolution at the expense of a visible moire effect in some images. The Nikon D800E will be priced at $3300 for the body only.
Each month between January and May, amateur and professional photographers from all over the world are invited to submit a portfolio of 3 digital photos. By the end of each month, 3 photographers are announced as the winners of that particular month, chosen both by the public and by a panel of 5 international judges.
The 8th annual Epson Red Sea competition will be held in November 4-10, 2012, in Eilat. Innovative categories and some very worthy prizes are planned for this year, making it very much worthwhile to be selected as the Photographer of the Year.
In order to participate, all you have to do is to upload your best underwater images, taken anywhere and anytime in the world, to the competition website.
Martin Edge's presentation to BSoUP on 21st September 2011 was recorded by Jo Horrocks. Previously made available to BSoUP Mmebers only the six c15 minute parts are now available to all courtesy of Martin and Jo.
If you are a BSoUP member and your website is not included on the BSoUP member's websites page or you have changed your web address, please send the URL of your site to the BSoUP Membership Secretary, Alan Larsen.
Mike deGruy and Andrew Wight killed in helicopter crash
Mike deGruy, aged 60, an award-winning American cinematographer from Santa Barbara in California, and Andrew Wight, aged 51, the Australian writer-producer of one of 2011's top-grossing Australian films have died in a fiery helicopter crash on the NSW south coast as it was taking off from an airstrip south of Berry on Saturday afternoon.
David Bennett, president of the South Coast Recreational Flying Club, said the men had set off to do some filming for a documentary at Jervis Bay.
Specializing in underwater and on-water photography, Mike deGruy's career has allowed him to film in the world's most remote and spectacular locations for his own productions, as well as for those of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), Public Broadcasting System (PBS), the National Geographic Society, and many others. Together with his wife, Mimi Armstrong deGruy, Mike owns the Santa Barbara-based production company called The Film Crew, Inc.
Andrew Wight was the writer-producer of the 3D film Sanctum, which was shot on the Gold Coast and went on to take $100m worldwide at the box office last year. Sanctum was said to have been based on his near-death experience in an underwater cave.
BWPA is delighted to announce the 2012 competition is now open for entries. With twelve separate categories, the subject matter covers everything from marine life and animal behaviour to creepy crawlies and urban wildlife.
With a prize fund of up to £20,000 and the overall winner receiving a cash prize of £5,000, the images receiving judges' commendations will form part of a series of nationwide exhibitions and be included in a book.
Congratulations to BSoUP Member Rico Besserdich who is this year's World Champion in the UnderwaterPhotography.com 2011/12 Competition!
Rico, a CMAS Instructor Trainer, said 'Underwater photography is a passion and profession for me. Right now, I am living in the Republic of Turkey where I do most of my uw photo work and projects. Beside many other activities in u/w photography I am the head of the "Underwater Photography" department at the Photography Fine Arts Association ( IFOD - Izmir, Republic of Turkey ). Here at UWP I am the founder and the head of the "photo critiques" feature ;-) I started with "normal" photography in 1978, underwater photography in 2001. My more than 3500 dives taught me, that I don't have an favourite divesite. I just want to get wet! I use CANON D-SLRs, Ikelite housing, Sea and Sea strobes and Canon/Sigma/Tokina lenses. More information on my website: www.maviphoto.com'
Congratulations also to BSoUP Members Nick Blake, Paul Colley, Paul Flaudinette, Michael Gallagher and Arun Madisetti.
Michael Gallagher won a Gold Medal in the Topside category and was one of the runners-up in the Macro category. Paul Colley won a Gold medal in the Wide-Angle (Wrecks category), one of the runners-up in the Macro - Close-Up category and one of the runners-up in the Over/Under category. Nick Blake won a Gold medal in the Freshwater category and was one of the runners-up in the Wide Angle - Natural Light category. Paul Flaudinette was one of the runners-up in the Macro - Close-Up category. Arun Madisetti was one of the runners-up in the Wide Angle-Natural Light category.
The amazing two minute video 'What a Wonderful World' narrated by Sir David Attenborough and originally uploaded by the BBC on Dec 7, 2011 on their youtube channel for the UK audience is now avaiable to worldwide at http://www.youtube.com/embed/auSo1MyWf8g
The video is a compilation of clips from Sir David Attenbourough's seminal series.
African Diver - Latest issue
The latest issue of the FREE magazine African Diver is now available to download.
This issue is a tribute to the magnificent diving destination of Aliwal Shoal off the southern coast of South Africa. On a good day, there's nothing to beat diving the Shoal. Blue waters, an abundance of species, interesting topography and wrecks. The Shoal offers it all: baited diving with tiger and black tip sharks, open water diving with ragged-tooth sharks, exploring and penetrating wrecks and observing myriad species of tropical and temperate fish. If you're looking for excitement and adventure this issue is just for you. It's packed with detailed advice on dive sites, dive operators and when to visit the Shoal. We believe it's a download you'll keep on your hard drive for years to come.
Wetpixel launches Picture of the Year 2011 contest
Voting deadline: 28th February, 2012
Wetpixel has launched its 2011 Picture of the Year contest. This allows the public to vote for their favorites from all 51 winners of the Wetpixel (POTW) Picture of the Week contest for 2011. The POTW contest never ceases to amaze with the quality, diversity and talent that it produces. The public vote for the Picture of the Year will start today, and run through until 28 February 2012, after which the winners will be announced.
The contest has a fantastic selection of prizes available. Solmar V has offered a trip aboard their luxury liveaboard as first prize and Ikelite, who also kindly provide the prizes for each and every POTW competition, has donated a DS161 strobe for the entry voted into second place. Nauticam USA has provided a $1,000 gift voucher for the third placed image with Reef Photo and Video of Fort Lauderdale, Florida generously giving gift vouchers of $500 and $250 for fourth and fifth placed images respectively.
The contest's voting page is open now so please head on over to wetpixel.com/competition/ and cast a vote for your favorite images of 2011.
EMUP - Next Meeting
Tuesday 7th February, 2012 at 7.30
Nemo's Bar, Stoney Cove
Stuart Gibson - Using Adobe Lightroom for Underwater Photography Competition: Anything goes (Photoshop crazy)
For this month's competition we are encouraging you to be creative in post processing. Be as extreme as you like. Cut and paste a Great White Shark onto a photo of the Stanegarth. Use some fancy filter in PS to make a van-Gogh or Dali-esque masterpiece of the Red Sea. So basically, anything goes. Only rule is everything in the image has to be yours. So no cutting and pasting other peoples work and passing it off as your own!
The next NUPG meeting will be on Monday 13th February at the Gurkha Grill in West Didsbury.
Ken Byrne will be doing a talk on a Photoshop technique used in underwater photography, John Spencer will be talking about his recent trip to Bali, Indonesia and the competition theme is and now for something completely different! Please enter up to 2 images (follow the instructions on www.nupg.org.uk) showing off unusual photography techniques you have used while underwater
Website of the Week - Charles Hood
Charles Hood is Photojournalist, Photographer, Skipper, and Diving Instructor. He is currently the Equipment Tester for the BS-AC's SCUBA magazine.
Charles runs a successful Dive Charter business specialising in Basking Sharks. His RIB Logan is a seven metre (23 feet) rigid hull inflateable boat, which is the preferred option to use for snorkelling as it is easy to get in and out of. She is licensed to carry 7 passengers plus skipper up to 20 miles from a safe haven, which is more than far enough. Although we can take out 7 passengers, if everyone wants to get in the water with camera equipment then 4 is recommended. she carries a full itinerary of safety equipment including oxygen.
The latest issue of BSoUP's magazine 'in focus' has been mailed to all BSoUP members.
Issue 97 for winter 2011/12 includes:- Edtorial by Joss Woolf, Under the Spotlight - Jane Morgan by Joss Woolf, Diving a nuclear test site by Shannon Conway, Glowing Edges by Pedro Vierya, Seal the deal by Rob Bailey, Competition Results, Back to the Maldives by Linda Pitkin, Leena Roy, Neil Rosewarn and Joss Woolf, When they don't play ball by Gavin Parsons, BSoUP Officers 2012 and lots of images.
This issue was edited by Joss Woolf with assistance from Paul Morgan and Mike Russell and produced by Gavin Parsons, to whom BSoUP extends its sincere thanks.
If
you would like to receive printed copies of in focus,
as and when it is published, then why not join
BSoUP.
Some earlier issues are availaible to BSoUP members only as a free pdf download. You will need to login first, if you haven't already done so this session.
Composing Underwater Photographs
by Linda Pitkin
BSoUP Member Linda Pitkin (www.lindapitkin.net) is one of more than 20 underwater photographers and videographers giving 15 minute daily talks in the Underwater Pixel World at Boot in Dusseldorf this week. Her talk covers some of the key areas: rule of thirds, color, perspective, background, framing, movement and patterns, and the talk is illustrated throughout by Linda's images.
On Monday last Adam Hanlon (wetpixel.com) recorded Linda's talk, which you can view by clicking on the image (right) or at Wetpixel on Vimeo.
If you have never attended a course on underwater photography with Martin Edge, he is offering one lucky BSoUP Member a single FREE place on a one day course near Bournemouth. BSoUP will pay £60 for the use of the hotel and pool and Martin will provide his services at no cost to you. You will be expected to pay your travel expenses and accommodation.
To qualify please send a brief statement about your current camera system (camera, housing, lenses, flashes), tell us about your underwater photography background and experience, send us six of your best images and tell us why you think you would benefit from this one-off special offer.
The lucky BSoUP Member who makes the best case will be notified in due course.
Please e-mail your statement and images to info@bsoup.org by 27 March, 2012
Although Martin specialises in courses for dSLR cameras he is willing to offer the course to four thirds and compact camera users as well.
British Underwater Photography Championship (Splash-In) 2012.
The annual British Underwater Photography Championship (Splash-In) takes place on Saturday 14th July, 2012 at Mount Batten, Plymouth.
The competition will run on similar lines to last year's (see Results 2011 and Rules 2011), although a few changes will be made. The Grand Prize for the overall winner is a 7-day live-aboard holiday for two in the Maldives (exclusive of flights and taxes) courtesy of Maldives Scuba Tours. Other prizes and awards will be announced as they are confirmed.
Those attending who have not booked accommodation or a space on a boat should contact Martha Tressler who has some spaces available.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year - Competition 2012 open
Deadline: Thursday, 23 February, 2012
The Veolia Environnment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 has now opened for entries with renowned underwater photographer, David Doubilet, as one of the judges. Categories include: Animal portraits, behavior (mammals, birds and cold-blooded animals), animals in their environment, botanical realms, underwater worlds, wildscapes, urban wildlife, nature in black and white, creative visions and 4 special awards. There is also a youth competition with classes in three age groups.
Deadlines: 3rd, February to 16th April, 2012 - rates vary
The 2012 Blue Ocean Film Festival is calling for entries. The event will be held from 24-30 September in Monterey, California and consists of, firstly, an international film competition which honors all genres of ocean related films. Films from around the globe are selected to be screened and celebrated during the festival and recognized at the BLUE Carpet Awards Ceremony. Secondly, an industry conference is to be held during the festival, and lastly, a conservation summit during which leaders in ocean issues, solutions and policy will head up a series of lectures and panels in conjunction with community educational outreach programs.
The International Conservation Photography Awards (ICP Awards) is a premier worldwide photography event focused on conservation and the environment. The 2012 edition of the biennial juried photo competition, along with awarding cash and merchandise to selected photographers, will include an online exhibit, a 5-month museum gallery exhibit at the prestigious Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, Washington, and publication in national photography magazines and other printed communications.
The competition includes an Underwater category. There are entry fees.
