Wetpixel/Under The Jungle Cenote Workshop 2021
Articles
INON bug-eye lens produces cover image for DIVE Magazine
Photographer Douglas Seifert has landed what might possibly be the first cover image taken with the INON Underwater Micro Semi-Fisheye Relay Lens UFL-MR130 EFS60 (commonly known as the “insect-eye” or “bug-eye,” although Douglas always refers to it as the “WAM,” for wide-angle macro). DIVE Magazine’s November 2010 cover is a shot of a clownfish in an anemone, which was taken with the unusual lens.
Douglas has a history of using new and crazy gear to capture images destined for covers; he also secured the first digital DIVE cover back in the Canon D60 days.
Timor-Leste underwater photo competition results announced
A week-long dive photo competition has been held at ten dive sites around Dili, Timor-Leste, finishing with an awards ceremony on 15 October at the Palacio Lahane. A total of 33 photographers from 9 nations came together to compete. The winners were Hendra Tan in the swimmers category, Ronny Rengkung in the dwellers, Dew Wilaisono in the crawlers and Im Eun Jae in the clingers. Lastly, in the portfolio category, Lim Kay Burn was awarded first prize. The organizers hope that this competition, the first to be held in the area, will showcase the unspoiled diving available.
Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year results released
The results of the 2010 Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year has been announced at a gala awards ceremony held at the Natural History Museum, London. It is great to see so many Wetpixel members achieving awards from such a prestigious competition. Tony Wu is the winner in the Underwater World category, with his image of four sperm whales from Dominica and Marcelo Krause’s image of a yacare caiman achieved a Highly Commended. In the One Earth category, Jordi Chias is the winner with an image of a turtle trapped in fishing net, and Brian Skerry and Thomas Haider also received Highly Commended awards for their images of shark finning.
The winning images will be on display at the Natural History Museum from 22 October. For those of us who didn’t make it this year, the 2011 competition will be open for entries from 12 January.
Apple releases Aperture 3.1 update
Apple has released a major update to their Aperture imaging software. Entitled version 3.1, this fixes many of the bugs that have been present since the v.3 release, and is a significant update in terms of performance. The new features lists is quite long, but includes: New slideshow themes, support for multiple Facebook and Flickr accounts and improved search filtering.
The update is available via software update or for download.
Weddell seal research season gets underway
Filmed by Wetpixel moderator and DiveFilm HD host, Mary Lynn Price in the Erebus Bay region of Antarctica’s Ross Sea, the Weddell Seal population dynamics research field team gets to work. This involves flagging safe routes, surveying, weighing, and identifying Weddell seals in the study area as the 2010 field season gets underway.
Canon releases firmware update for 5D Mk2
Canon has released firmware update version 2.0.8 for their 5D Mk2 SLR. The update addresses several problems including: Movies are not taken at the shooting mode registered in the user’s settings if Aperture or Shutter priority is set in any of the camera’s user settings (C1, C2, C3); if the user attempts to shoot a movie, the shutter will not release when pressing the shutter button when the auto power off function is on. In addition, it fixes the issues of overexposure when shooting a Live View shooting simulation with the ISO speed set to L and also the problem in which the settings of the Speedlite transmitter ST-E2 revert to the default settings when both the camera and the ST-E2 are set to auto power off. Lastly it repairs a phenomenon in which the Macro Ring Lite (MR-14EX, MT-24EX) and slave flash do not sync while shooting wirelessly.
It is available for download from Canon.
Save Our Seas Foundation wins a Panda Award
The Save Our Seas Foundation has received a Panda award in the category Best environmental Campaign for its short film “Save Our Sharks”. The Panda awards are given out at the annual Wildscreen Film Festival, and are widely regarded as the highest accolade for wildlife film makers. This year the three finalists were: The Bottom Line produced by Greenpeace; Yao Ming: Shark Fin Soup PSA produced by Wildaid and Save Our Sharks produced by the Save Our Seas Foundation.
The Campaign award is given to the best production, not commissioned by a broadcaster, that covers an environmental campaign. This award is especially significant as it was directed, filmed, produced and edited by an in-house team. Save Our Sharks is a 6 minute film which aims to educate the public about the barbaric practice of shark finning and it’s link to shark fin soup.
The great equalizer: Shootout, Monterey Style
Allison Vitsky and Andy Sallmon both competed in the recent NCUPS Beach and Boat competition at Monterey. They have joined forces to write this account of the competition, and their eventual success. Allison:
“Once again, that stupid camera has taken me out of my comfort zone. “
And Andy:
“I know we are both thinking that if the day continues this way, we’re going to get creamed.”