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BSoUP's
Splash-in Competition 1986
by
Brian Pitkin
Reproduced
from in focus 16
(June 1986)
Each
year the British Society of Underwater Photographers organises
a Competition, open to all divers, at Fort Bovisand Underwater
Centre, Plymouth. The event this year, held on Saturday, 31st
Ray, was very generously sponsored by AGFA, who provided all
the film and chemicals for the 'On the Day' class.
RECORD
ENTRY
A
new record was set this year. A total of 77 underwater photographers
took part in the Splash-In. Each participant collected one
roll of AGFACHROME Professional 35 mm film in either 50, 200
or 1000 ASA between 9.00 and 10.00 and,m. They had until
5.00 p.m. to expose their film In Plymouth waters and return
it for processing.
Entrants dispersed to dive and either seek out a suitable
subject or, if they chose, took down their own props to contrive
a humerous or novelty shot. Most concentrated on the abundant
marine life or framed their buddy in a suitable gully or wreck,
but a few sneaked toys and other artefacts down with them
to the seabed. |
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Above:
Lion fish by Peter Rowlands. The original won the Gold Medal
in the Band W Prints category |
Above:
Puffer fish by Peter Rowlands. The original came second in
the Band W Prints category. |
Above:
Plumose anemone by Kevin Cullimore. The original came third
in the B and W Prints category |
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Throughout
the day, entries for the Black and White and Colour Print
classes were on display in the reception area at Fort Bovisand.
The subjects, taken underwater anywhere in the world, ranged
from marine life, freshwater fish, divers and wrecks. Visitors
to the Fort and participants in the event were invited to
vote for their favourite pictures, In contrast to the tremendous
response for the 'On the Day' class, there were slightly fewer
Black and White Prints then last year.
At the end of the afternoon, 74 of the films had been returned
for processing. The dark room team worked smoothly and efficiently
to return the processed, dried and sleeved films by 9.00 p.m.
(See Peter Rowlands article). The excited photographers then
spent forty-five minutes studying their results before selecting
up to two of their best for projection and judging.
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LIVELY
AUDIENCE
One hundred and twenty slides were then shown to a packed
and lively audience who were then invited to vote for their
favourite three and the best contrived shot, before retiring
to the bar to await the results and presentations.
This year BSoUP member, RAY BREACH, had designed and made
special BSoUP medals in gold silver and bronze for first,
second and third places. New trophies were donated by Ocean
Optics and Aquamatic. The former. a beautiful iridescent glass
clam, mounted on a small plinth, was designed and made by
SlDDY LANGLEY, also a BSoUP member. DAVID GEORGE, the Society's
President, presented the awards.
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Above:
Moray eel by Peter Rowlands. The original won the Colour Prints
category |
Above:
Clown fish by Viv Pearson. The original came second in the
Colour Prints category |
Above:
Fan coral silhouette by Linda Pitkin. The original came thrid
in the Colour Prints category. |
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WINNERS
Third place in the Black and White Print class went to KEVIN
CULLIMORE for a shot of a Plumose Anemone taken in British
waters. PETER ROWLANDS took second and first place for his
Red Sea studies of a Puffer Fish and a Lion Fish. Peter won
the new Ocean Optics Trophy.
In the Colour Prints class, third place went to LINDA PITKIN
for her silhouette of a fan coral, taken in Sulawesi. VIV
PEARSON took second place for her Red Sea Clown Fish in a
bright red Anemone. PETER ROWLANDS' Moray Eel was firm favourite
and won him the Greenaway and Morris Trophy and his third
medal of the evening.
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Above:
Devonshire cup coral by Peter Scoones. The original colour
slide won the Gold Medal 'On the Day' |
The
Best Contrived shot 'On the Day' was taken by PETER HEWITT.
Peter's slide showed a squeaky yellow toy hedgehog as a partner
to an equally spiny sea urchin and won him the Aquanatic Trophy
and a gold medal.
Third place 'On the Day', with a macro shot of a hydroid,
went to RON WILLIAMSON. Winning his second medal of the evening,
KEVIN CULLIMORE, came second with a split lens shot of a Cottid
Fish. The winner of the BSoUP/AGFA Splash-In 86 'On the Day'
class by a clear majority was PETER SCOONES with a superb
shot of a cup coral framed against the surface of the water.
Peter took his double exposure shot with a Pentax LX in a
housing and won him the BSoUP Trophy, a splendid fish carved
in wood by DAVID MORGAN.
The first, second and third in each class were presented,
respectively, with five, three and two rolls of AGFACHOME
Profesional film, |
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Linda
Pitkin, John Field, Joan Funnell, Linda Wilson, Jenny and
David George, John Hargreaves, Mike and Jan Maloney, Peter
Bignell, David Clift, Christine Osborne, Tamara and Alex
Double, Peter Rowlands, Paul Langley, Val Debbage, Peter Scoones
and others all pitched in on the day to help make this year's
BSoUP/AGFA Splash-In a huge success. To all the Society is
very grateful.
Our special thanks go to Alan Bax and all the staff at Fort
Bovisand for making us so welcome once again and to AGFA for
their kindness in sponsoring our unique annual underwater
competition.
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Above:
Split lens shot of tompot blenny by Kevin Cullimore. The original
colour slide came second 'On the Day' |
Above:
Hydroid by Ron Williamson. The original colour slide came
third 'On the Day' |
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PROCESSING
'ON THE DAY'
by
Peter Rowlands
For those BSoUP members who entered the BSoUP/AGFA Splash-in
'On the Day' class, there was a chance to rest from 5.00 p.m.
onwards, while the films were processed, until they were returned
dried and sleeved. For the processors, however, this was the
most hectic part of the day as this year there were 75 films
to process as quickly as possible.
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Left
and above: Peter Rowlands hanging processed films to dry |
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In
the past we have relied on amateur methods using developing
tanks holding up to 8 rolls of film. The chemicals have to
be poured into and out of these tanks to process the films.
The result is an economical system but it is one which becomes
stretched when the number of films exceeds 24 (i.e. 3 separate
processes),
Over the last few years the number of participants has risen,
so much so that last year there were over 60 films to be processed.
The experience was a headache for Peter Scoones and his team,
so, drawing on his experience, we decided to invest in bulk
equipment to cope with the increasing quantities of film.
AGFA's
invaluable sponsorship has, without doubt, allowed us to process
much larger quantities of film and so ensure that the delays
are kept to a minimum. They provided 15 litres of Process
44 (E6) chemistry - the retail cost of which is over £150
-to enable us to process 36 films at a time.
The
process involves 7 chemical baths and two water washes, so
we purchased ten 15 litre tanks together with three 20"
x 10" dishwarmers to keep all the chemicals at the correct
temperature (38°C). The films were loaded onto stainless
steel spirals and retained in a basket, so that the film travelled
to the chemicals rather than the other way around.
The
process takes a little over 30 minutes, more time being spent
loading the spirals prior to processing and unloading them
afterwards to dry. With only one person experienced in loading
stainless steel spirals, it took over 30 minutes to load 36
films! At the end of the process, the film were removed from
the spirals and hung up to dry, All this takes a great deal
of time and cannot be hurried without the risk of dropping
a film.
Once
dried, the films must then be put into protective sleeves
and then returned to their owners as quickly as possible.
This year we took just under 4 hours, but we hope that with
some more evolutionary organisation, we can reduce this to
3 hours, so that films can be returned at 8 p.m. The entrants
can then have one hour to choose their two frames, mount and
enter then, so that Judging can begin at 9 p.m., the results
being announced no later than 10.00 p.m.
This
will give a more civilised timetable which avoids the past
pitfalls, which have seen us waiting until well after midnight
for results In past years. So next time you are relaxing after
your diving, spare a thought for the processors and maybe
buy them a drink, but make sure its after the processing has
definately finished .....
BSoUP
SPLASH-IN WINNERS |
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