Wetpixel Moderator Steve Williams was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer back in November 2011. In May this year, cancer free, he returned to the oceans, diving in the Lembeh Strait, Indonesia. I feel very privileged to share this article about his experience with the Wetpixel community.
Adobe has announced the release of version 5 of its Lightroom image processing software. The beta version has been in existence for some time and, true to its statements, Adobe has made the new version available as a stand-alone purchase as well as a part of the Creative Cloud package. It incorporates new healing abilities (great for backscatter removal) and offline editing abilities. As a stand alone, it is priced at $149 or $79 as an upgrade.
We have a few spaces left to fill for the Wetpixel/Alex Mustard Lembeh macro workshop. If you are not quite getting the results you want from your macro photography, or want to try new ideas and techniques, this is the trip for you. Based at the excellent Lembeh Resort, we will be diving each day, and combing a mixture of formal teaching, coaching and encouragement to help you not only get the best from your macro shots during the trip, but also to take away a bunch of new techniques for the future.
Operation Blue Pride has taken three severely wounded combat veterans to Tiger Beach to show them the challenges that are facing the oceans and to give them a new mission: To help save those oceans. The teams are now reaching out on Kickstarter to raise the money needed to produce, distribute and market the film of the project to a global audience
As reported in the forums, the EU has closed a loophole that allowed crews with Special Fishing Permits (SFPs) to continue landing shark fins without the carcass. Up until now, EU vessels have been estimated to be responsible for 27% of the fins in the Hong Kong markets. (Image from Shutterstock)
The Journal of Fish Biology has published a paper listing 5 observations of oarfish (Regalecus glesne) that were filmed or recorded by deep diving remotely operated vehicles. Previously, the species had only been observed either dead or dying at the surface.
The winners of the 2013 University of Miami Marine Photography Contest have been announced. The prize for Best Overall goes to Kyle McBurnie of California for his shot of a harbor seal in a kelp forest off Cortes Bank.
Conservation International has reported that 26-year-old turtle conservationist Jairo Mora Sandoval was abducted and shot by masked men whilst on his way to patrol the beach of Moin, Costa Rica. The purpose of their patrol was to protect leatherback turtle nests from poachers. (Leatherback turtle image from Shutterstock.)
Due to launch on 14 June is a new CompactFlash card that offers the option of an in-card “mirror” back-up similar to that of a RADI drive. The idea is that the card can be split into two partitions that each record information simultaneously. Of course, this halves the storage capacity and the read/write speeds.
The New Age reports that the Japanese government is to reject the CITES agreement to add the oceanic whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus), smooth hammerhead (Sphyrna zygaena), great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran), scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) porbeagle sharks (Lamna nasus) to Appendix II. The agreement would limit cross border trade in products that have been made using the animals but Japan is filing a “reservation”, which will allow them to continue as before.