Photodex has announced that it is partnering with online photo-hosting service Smugmug to offer seamless HD slideshow creation from within the Smugmug or ProShow Web interfaces. Users will be able to move content between the two services, add in themes, royalty-free music and effects, and then export the slideshows across a number of platforms or sent back to Smugmug, where they will be viewable in full 1080p HD video.
Specialist image printers Image Wizards are offering a special discount to Wetpixel members on their AluminArte Metal prints.Their current offer extends a 10% discount to new customers only, but if you contact them and quote the code WP0311, you will receive the discount whether you are a new customer or not.
For more information, pricing and order details, please see the Image Wizards website. The offer runs through until 31 March.
The results of the first Capture the World underwater video challenge have been announced. The competition, organized and sponsored by Aggressor and Dancer Fleets as well as Gates Underwater Products and judged by David Ulloa and Wayne Brown, awarded first prize to Michael Marx for his film, “Diving Raja Ampat.” Congratulations to all the winners.
Please click through for a full list of the winners and to view their videos.
Equinox has announced the released of a HD6 housing for the Panasonic HDC-TM900 HD camcorder. The housing controls give access to on\off, record start/stop, zoom and still/memory functions on the camera. The HD6 has a 250 ft (75 meter) depth rating and is close to neutral buoyancy at approximately 33 ft (10 meters). It also features Equinox’s BRS (Ballast Release System): For easy travel or if trouble occurs on a dive, simply pull on the quick release pin on one of the wings, the wing and handle (ballast) will release and the housing will become positive and go to the surface.
The HD6 for the HDC-TM900 is available now at $949.
An 8-year ban on fishing at the spawning aggregations of the Nassau grouper in the Cayman Islands is about to expire. The current ban stops the fishing of Nassau grouper from their breeding grounds, although mature fish can still be caught outside of these areas. The ban was enacted after severe over-fishing threatened the entire population in 2002/3. At that time, the ban was enacted to preserve the remaining fish stock
Anna DeLoach was involved in the assessment of the breeding groups in 2002 and is leading a campaign for the ban to remain in place. The Caycompass reports that discontent at this proposal is already being voiced by the fishing industry, and it is important that our community responds in order to prevent the Nassau grouper being decimated again.
UPDATE: There is now an online petition on this issue. Please take the time to sign it in order to add your support.
Issue 59 of Underwater Photography magazine (UwP) is now available to download. The March/April issue runs to 76 pages and includes articles and reviews on FIT close-up lenses by Alex Mustard, Making an Aquatica by Jean Bruneau, Dome Reflections by Pete Atkinson and Pearls of Borneo by Chris Mitchell.
In addition there are reviews, features and lots of great photgraphy. UwP magazine issue 59 is available as a free pdf download.
Wetpixel Associate Editor Alex Mustard and Martin Edge are teaming up again to present a joint presentation at the London International Dive Show (LIDS) on 26 and 27 March. Wetpixel reported on their last combined talkin November 2010, which attracted over 240 underwater photographers, and received many rave reviews. Their seminars at LIDS will start at 11.15 on both days and the organizers expect demand to be high, so plan to be there early.
The 2011 London Dive Show is to be held at ExCel, London and also features the PhotoZone, an area dedicated to underwater imaging. I will be there to cover the event for Wetpixel, so please check back here if you can’t be there in person.
The director of “The Cove”, Louie Psihoyos, said on Monday that a Japanese dubbed version of the film was delivered over the weekend to all households in Taiji, Japan, with the help of a local group called People Concerned for the Ocean. The Oscar-winning documentary is based on the sales and slaughter of dolphins in a cove near the town.
Huffington Post has quoted Psihoyos as saying that he was concerned many Japanese have yet to see the film, but especially the 3,500 people of Taiji in the southwest of the country.
The Diving Equipment Marketing Association (DEMA) has released a statement welcoming the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWCC) decision to continue with a moratorium on the harvesting of goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara). This decision was reached at a meeting on 23 February, and was based on the lack of available data on population numbers.
Tom Ingram, DEMA Executive Director, said that:
“The goliath grouper’s size, visibility, low birth rate and slow movement seems to trace another of Florida’s truly majestic waterborne creatures – the manatee, and could easily be thrown back to species extinction if harvesting were allowed without verified stock assessments,”
The British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP) has announced the British Underwater Photography Championship 2011. This splash-in competition will be held at Mount Batten, Plymouth, UK on Saturday 9 July. The competition comprises four categories open to images taken with all types of digital cameras during the day: Marine Life, Mankind in the Sea, Humorous, and a special theme to be announced at the event. Prizes will be awarded to each category winner. There will also be an award for the best image with a compact camera in each category (except Humorous).
Please see the BSoUP website for full details and how to enter.