Articles
James Wiseman, HUPS Member of the Year
Wetpixel administrator James Wiseman has been elected Member of the Year by HUPS - the Houston Underwater Photographic Society. HUPS is one of the largest and most active uw photo societies in the US, hosting a photo gallery and presentations at Seaspace, offering quarterly photo workshops, and a monthly digital and slide photography contest. Congratulations, James!
Nikon updates D2x firmware, recalls some EN-EL3 batteries
Nikon released firmware 1.01 for Nikon D2x and D2Hs, which makes improvements to auto focus, fixes an AF assist bug when using certain Speedlights, improves flash performance and fixes a manual white balance bug.
They also issued a voluntary recall of some EN-EL3 batteries (for D50, D70 and D100) due to a shorting/overheating problem.
(just kidding)
Apple’s Aperture: first looks
PDN and Rob Galbraith both have interesting first-look articles about Aperture, Apple’s upcoming photo management program. While we can expect many full-blown reviews to be coming out in the next month or two, these are worth reading if you just can’t wait:
[Bringing Aperture into focus, by Rob Galbraith]
[Hands-on with Aperture, by David Schloss]
Wetpixel restructures forums
Thanks to the advice of various Wetpixel staff, we’ve restructured the forums, grouping them by content. Hopefully, you will no longer have to hunt around to find the forum you’re interested in reading (instead, you’ll have to scroll just a bit further).
SUBIOS photo and video contest
Entries from across the globe are already being invited for the photo and video competitions of SUBIOS, the annual underwater festival of the islands of Seychelles.
The winners of the competition will receive airfare and accommodation for an exclusive Seychelles holiday, offering visitors a chance to explore this tropical getaway known for its sparkling blue water, white sandy beaches and lush mountainsides, in addition to its excellent diving.
The SUBIOS photo and video competition is an opportunity for both professional and amateur photographers and filmmakers to capture stunning shots of the natural underwater world at work. The yearly event, which in 2006 will be held from March 6-12, continually produces a number of impressive visuals taken in Seychelles and other places around the world – some focusing on sharks, turtles and whales, while others delve into the often curious relationship between organisms along colourful coral reefs.
Entry forms and additional details about the competition can be downloaded at www.subios.sc (continue reading for full press release)
FiNS Magazine/Seaventures free trip contest
Our friends over at FiNS Magazine are running a contest for a free dive trip to Seaventures, a converted oil platform for divers and photographers in Sabah, Malaysia. The five questions can be found on FiNS’ website (scroll down and look for “Seaventures Contest Question”). The answers are found in a series of .pdf articles on Sabah, and the answer and entry form is here.
It’s a little confusing, but you can win a trip. :)
Seacam Wet Diopter
At this year’s DEMA show Seacam introduced a pair of wet diopters custom designed for their macro ports. The MacroMate and the Seacam diopter are really different tools, and owning one does not preclude having the other in your arsenal. The MacroMate will go to 2:1, whereas I would estimate the Seacam #4 probably goes to about 1.3:1 magnification. The #4 is available now, packaged in a neoprene case and priced at $295.
I took a pair of the Seacam diopters with me last week on a shoot in St. Vincent. Actually, the vis was pretty bad because of an unseasonable amount of rain, so I spent most of the week shooting 100mm macro subjects, and truly enjoying it…
BBC Photographer of the Year
Congratulations to Wetpixel member JP Trenque (better known here at Wetpixel as frogmansub) for winning the BBC Photographer of the Year competition. His picture of schooling barracuda was taken at Ras Mohammed in Egypt with the Nikon D100 and 10.5mm lens and was selected as the winner from a massive 12000 entries, by a public vote on the BBC Website. On the way to the final JP’s picture also won the Environment category (which itself attracted 2000+ entries). His prize is £400 towards a photographic assignement for the BBC website.