The Amazing Seas Book Event is a unique festival spanning the globe for underwater photographers. The idea is simple; get together with good friends, travel to the best SCUBA diving destinations in the world, stay at exotic resorts, dive amazing reefs and photograph the definitive hard cover, coffee table book for that area.
The first Amazing Seas event will be in Malaysia this coming October and November 2010.
A statement released today by the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition announces that winner Jose Luis Rodriguez has been disqualified after the judging panel determined that his winning image made use of a trained wolf.
Rodriguez beat out thousands of other entries in the competition last October. Shortly thereafter suspicions were raised regarding Rule # 10, which states that photographs of animal models are not allowed in the competition.
An interesting dialogue is taking place in our forums and how this specifically relates to underwater photography competitions many of us enter each year.
Wetpixel Expeditions announces two dive photography expeditions in late 2010:
Photographers Eric Cheng and Tony Wu will lead the Ambon trip. Eric leads the Raja Ampat trip. Hope you can join us out there! For booking information, please click through above and read thoroughly. Both Tony and I are traveling a lot this coming month and may not be responsive over email; all bookings will be done via Dan at Under Exposures.
Wetpixel’s Alex Mustard continues his new series of interview based articles on the techniques of underwater photography with A Conversation with one of the undoubted legends of underwater photography, Kurt Amsler.
In the interview we discuss what today’s underwater photographers can learn from the past: the techniques and knowledge that has been forgotten, how photographers can learn to exploit ambient light, and the fascinating work that Kurt has done developing housings and strobes for Seacam. And much more.
The Ukrainian edition of Photographer magazine has published a showcase of The Best Underwater Photographers of the World 2009. We are especially pleased as the majority of the photographers listed are Wetpixel members.
A small selection of images (in Ukrainian) is viewable on their website. A complete list of the photographers included in the showcase can be found in a forum thread started by Alex Mustard (who is one of the photographers in the list).
Backscatter’s Berkley White writes about his experience shooting both still photographs and videos with the Canon 7D in an Aquatica underwater housing.
The Canon 7D is quite possibly the best of both worlds for underwater photographers with an interest in video. This crop sensor camera allows use of the Tokina 10-17mm lens which is arguably the greatest wide angle lens ever made for underwater photography. The Canon 7D is not only priced well below $2000, it also features a pop-up flash and other features that make it a great all around camera for topside use.
Click over to Backscatter to read Berkley’s full review.
A new article published by our friends at DivePhotoGuide illustrates the frustrations in upgrading from a Nikon D3/D3x camera to the new D3s in regards to fitting existing underwater housings. With features like HD video and high ISO capabilities, the upgrade certainly has its advantages.
Jason Heller’s article explores exactly why this upgrade doesn’t perfectly integrate into the D3/D3x existing housings.
Yesterday, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck just west of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. There have been dozens of large aftershocks after the initial quake, and millions of people are in need of relief. Google News is a good resource for finding breaking articles about the devastation.
Join the discussion in the forums for information about which organizations Wetpixel members are supporting.
As many of you already know, a swimmer was killed by a great white shark in Cape Town yesterday at a beach with no shark nets. Shark Savers director Julie Andersen has written a message for those of us interested in sharks attacks in South Africa.
Continue reading for Julie’s full message. If you don’t have time to read but still want to help, Julie asks that you click on over to News 24 to vote on how you think shark attacks can be prevented.
Wetpixel member Jordi Chias has posted images taken with the INON UFL-MR130 EFS60 Underwater Micro Semi-Fisheye Relay Lens (let’s find a new name for the lens, please!) adapted to a Nikon D300 and old 60mm AF macro lens. The adapter was machined by Jose Sanchez at Saga Dive, which means that it will probably make its way to distributors at some point.
Chias says that the adapted lens works pretty well, but that there is some corner softness. Also, the port “needs to be very well machined to align both lenses and avoid vignetting.”