Wetpixel is proud to announce Nicholas Samaras as the winner of the 2010 Raja Ampat Entrance Tag Design Contest. Nicholas’ breathtaking tag design features a stylized illustration of a manta ray.

Nicholas explains, “The concept of this tag emanated from Indonesian Culture designs. Inspiration came from the geometric and circular designs in body and face traditional Indonesian tattoos. The font is also based in the traditional Indonesian hand, writing-adjusted in ‘Latin’ characters.” He selected the manta ray as a subject because it is “so full of grace and beauty that it could be a ‘pattern of behaviour’ for visitors in Raja Ampat protected area.”

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Nick Martorano, the resident video pro at Sam’s Tours in Palau, is an award-winning cameraman, filmmaker and digital media producer whose credits include National Geographic, “Survivor”, GEO, and others. This workshop features an action packed week full of diving and instruction for five lucky divers.  Nick is keeping the ratio small to provide top notch, hands on instruction and interaction.  This course is being offered for beginner and intermediate students with a lot of time being spent in the water.

Palau, one of the best diving destinations in the world, offers a huge array of underwater subjects, including sharks, mantas, barracudas, jacks, turtles, napoleon wrasses, and even the elusive mandarin fish.  Join Nick and Sam’s Tours for this awesome experience.  Sign up now to be one of the lucky five!

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I went over to see award-winning filmmakers Howard and Michele Hall tonight and managed to shoot a quick video clip of Howard showing off a rotating stand for his RED ONE camera housed in a Gates underwater housing. Anyone who has tried to maintain a heavy underwater video housing on a workbench will appreciate the ingenuity of Howard’s solution. Continue reading for video…

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Underwater Photography Magazine (UwP), a free PDF magazine, has published a review of MarineLife Keywords written by marine biologist and award-winning photographer Alexander Mustard. The review can be found in their 50th issue, which is available as a free download from their website. Alex says:

The list includes the genus and species of 12,000 species, including over 4,000 fish, 4,000 invertebrates, and all known marine turtles, rays, skates, marine reptiles, and marine mammals… The first thing I did was to try to find any absentees. It is not easy. The coverage is fantastic…

... keywording is an essential part of workflow for anyone who supplies their images to photo stock libraries. MLKL was built for these tasks and having tasted it I could never give it up.

It is often said that time is money. I can’t think of many other products, designed for underwater photographers, which will save you as much time for so little money. A highly recommended purchase.

Alex likes it! :)

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Underwater Australasia has announced the winners of the 5th anual Underwater Photo Competition. The first prize, a two week trip to Yap and Palau, was awarded to David Henshaw for his amazing shot of a blue ribbon eel. In the novice category the first place went to Andrew McLeod with a photo of a jellyfish and crab.

Judges this year included author and Wetpixel member Mathieu Meur, Richard Vevers from the Underwater Australia Gallery as well as members from the Underwater.com.au team. They were unanimous in their decision of the winning image underlining the uniqueness of David’s shot. View all this years winners at Underwater Australasia.

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