Scubaism

26 excited participants from all over the globe ended on the island of Layang Layang in Sabah, Malaysia from July 17-23rd for a 6 day extravaganza of camaraderie, photography, and spectacular diving.

Judges and presenters for the week included Stephen Wong from Hong Kong, Dr Kurt Svrcula from Malaysia, Settimio Cipriani from Italy, and Mike Veitch from Yap.

Participants enjoyed 3 to 4 dives per day on Layang’s spectacular walls and enjoyed a never ending variety of food when not in the water. The weather could not have been better as there was nothing but bright blue sky and flat seas throughout the event.

The 3 judging categories included composition, technical perfection, and the “Wow” factor. The judging was extremely close on many of the images as the talent level of participating photographers was very high.

With so many great sponsors there were certainly no shortage of prizes for the top 6 entries in each category, the first prize alone was worth US $6000!! Thanks to sponsors Nautica, Nikon, Layang Layang, Asian Diver, Coral Redang Resort, Macana Maldives Liveaboard, Baani Explorer, Oceanic, GP Batteries, Ralf Tech, NAUI, Borneo Divers, and SMART resort.

(IMHO, the second place winner in the macro category by Takeko Taniguchi, should have easily taken first place.)

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Photographers from around the world have been invited to submit entries to the British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP) International Focus On competition. Open to all underwater photographers, the online competition is free to enter.

Each photographer can submit one picture to the BSoUP website www.bsoup.org/competitions until the competition closes at10pm (GMT) on 14 August.

All images will be judged by the audience of experienced underwater photographs at the BSoUP meeting on 15 August.

Submitted images must have been taken in an open water environment. Images that have finished first, second or third in previous national or international competitions are not being accepted this year.

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The winners of Scuba Diving magazine’s third annual photo contest have recently been posted. The categories were wide angle, marine life, macro and topside.

This image by the multi-award winning photographer Todd Mintz won the grand prize of $1,000 cash and a dive trip for two to Manta Ray Hotel in Yap, Micronesia.

What I want to know is this:

How do these UNnatural looking shots always seem to always win top prizes at NATURE photography competitions?

As bizarre as it looks, it’s a Spinecheek anemonefish in bulb-tentacle anemone shot in Raja Ampat, Indonesia using a Canon 20D, Aquatica A20 housing and Inon Z220S strobes.

The other winners and honourable mentions were all fantastic. I know it’s a cop-out, but I have to say that it would have been impossible for if I were a judge to pick out a clear winner.

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Seademon from the diver forum, Malaysianunderwater.com, just uploaded the video presentation he did for the forum’s booth. It features him and veteran divers, Jim, Bobo, Comrade and a few others diving at Tioman. It also features a wreck dive, technical dive with twin tanks, night diving — some of the activities the guys at the forum engage in.

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The Shark Trust, along with Diver Magazine, has opened the “Sharks In Focus” photo competition to submission of entries.

The contest is open to every underwater photographer, amateur or professional, and images of all types of shark encounter are welcome. Not only is there a chance of winning a fantastic shark-diving trip to the Maldives, but your work will be widely appreciated. Images of suitable quality will be displayed in an online gallery, and the short-list selected by public vote.

The cream of the entries will be displayed at Dive 2007 at the NEC in October, where a panel of experts will choose the best shot in each of four categories – and the outright winner. The top prize will be awarded at a Sharks In Focus fund-raising gala evening to celebrate the Shark Trust’s 10th anniversary. Finally, the winners’ work will be immortalised in the 2008 Diver Magazine Calendar!

You’ll be able to use the online form to enter up to two images in total. You can enter these in any of four categories:

1. Perfect Calm
2. Stormy Seas
3. Challenging Times
4. Quirky Encounters

Perfect Calm covers pictures taken in good visibility. Stormy Seas is the opposite, so don’t discount those exciting but murky shots just yet. Challenging Times refers to “impact” photos – it could be shark carcases or fins on a market stall, fishermen at work and so on. Finally, Quirky Encounters covers any shark image that doesn’t fit naturally into the other three categories!

However good your image looks on a computer screen, to be in with a chance of winning it must be available not only as a low resolution Internet-friendly file (maximum dimensions 450 pixels @ 72dpi), but also in high-resolution digital format (minimum A4 @ 300dpi).Closing date is 31 August 2007.

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Divephotoguide.com has a fascinating interview with a test diver with the housing manufacturer, Fantasea. (For some reason, the job is referred to as “test pilot”.) The interview covers the entire process of field testing for each prototype.

I’m an underwater photographer and a diving instructor, living on the coast of the Red Sea. Whenever a new product prototype arrives from our factory in China, it is sent to the south of Israel for me to test. We actually call this testing a “Diving Safari”, since we try to imitate the rough conditions our product should easily be able to contend with when used intensively, as in a Diving Safari. This usually means an intensive week of diving with the product at least three times a day, at least one hour each dive. Testing procedures vary according to the type of product being tested.

It’s nice to find out at the end of the interview that Howard Rosenstein, the owner of Fantasea, field tests each product several times before he personally gives his certificate of approval.

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The Stylus 770 SW is an amazing 7 MP digital camera with Digital Image Stabalization that’s rated to go underwater up to 33 feet (10m). Scubadiverinfo.com really put it to the test, taking it down to 77 feet and it worked properly.

The buttons on this one didn’t get pushed in by water pressure and all controls worked even at nearly 80 feet. What did happen was that the water pressure apparently pushed in the glass of the LCD enough to cause a black rectangle in the center of the 2.5-inch display. It disappeared as she ascended and the camera was none the worse for wear. And no leakage either. That’s just amazing.

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EPIC (Environmentally aware Photographic Image Competition) has announced his 2007 winners. All very deserving. First place went to Jose Alvarez of the Dominican Republic for this photo he calls “Grace”.

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Eric Cheng has posted the winners of the Bonaire Shootout. The winners all received dive trips to Indonesia. None of the ones I liked were selected. Too bad. (IMHO: The winners showed technical proficiency. But that’s about it. See for yourself.)

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Here are the participant submissions for day 5. I liked John Ciurczak’s top down lighting of the sponges.

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