The Underwater Images photography competition has just announced its 2009 winners. Congratulations to Wetpixel member Keri Wilk (SlipperyDick) for winning Best of Show, and to all the other winners! Many of the winners are Wetpixel members, and because the competition website doesn’t have a gallery of images, members have started posting their winning images in the Wetpixel forum.
We’ve just had a cancellation and are looking for 1-3 more photographers to join us in the Ogasawara Islands in Japan this coming October, 2009 to photograph sperm whales. We leave Tokyo by ferry on October 8, and return on the 20th. Sperm whales are the largest carnivores on the planet, and can be inquisitive, allowing photographers to approach very closely.
Full details can be found on our sperm whale expedition page!
Our friends over at Underwater Photography magazine have just released UwP49, a 76-page downloadable PDF. UwP49 includes reviews of the Aquatica, Epoque, Sea & Sea, and Fuji housings as well as destination pieces and articles on technique by Alex Mustard, Jeff Hartog, Mark Webster, and others.
Also, UwP’s (paid) online classifieds page is back, so if our classifieds forum isn’t enough for you to sell your kit, check it out!
The Taiwanese American Community Center of San Diego has just moved to a new location and is proud to present an exhibition of underwater imagery by photographer Eric Cheng (http://echeng.com). The exhibit includes 14 vibrant, aluminum prints of marine wildlife including sharks, whales, waves, jellyfish, and corals. The show opens on Tuesday, July 7, 2009, and runs through August 8, 2009.
Meet Eric at an open reception on Saturday, July 11, 2009 between 1PM-5PM.
Location:
Taiwanese American Community Center
7838 Wilkerson Ct., San Diego, CA 92111
Exhibition dates:
July 7 through August 8, 2009
DivePhotoGuide is hosting a digital Nikonos industry design challenge:
“Produce an adapter or modify a camera to work with existing Nikons lenses, particularly the 15mm or Nikonos RS wide angle lenses, or build a digital back for existing Nikonos bodies.”
As a prize for any manufacturer who develops a working prototype, DPG will offer free advertising and help marketing the product, should the prototype become a real product. The deadline for the contest is December 31, 2009.
Digital Photography Review has posted an article comparing 5 waterproof digital cameras: Canon PowerShot D10, Fuji FinPix Z33WP, Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 / 6000, and Pentax Optio W60. The five cameras range in price from $185 to $330, and are waterproof up to 33ft in depth. Tests include outdoor tests, low light / high ISO tests, flash tests, and underwater performance.
The article concludes that “the [PowerShot] D10 produced the sharpest, most detailed images of all the cameras in this group test at low ISO settings, both in and out of the water. This, combined with responsive performance and a straightforward user interface that has been proven on other cameras in the PowerShot series, means that if you were shopping for a waterproof camera mainly to use in the water, then you can stop reading right now and go order the D10.”
Wetpixel is proud to announce the immediate availability of issue #6 of Wetpixel Quarterly magazine. In its trademark landscape-oriented, high-resolution format, issue #6 celebrates the underwater photography of marine photojournalists Stephen Wong and Takako Uno, as well as the quirky, humorous artwork of Ray Troll.
In addition, WPQ6 features images from Wetpixel expeditions to the Pacific northwest coast of North America and a conservation article about Pacific leatherback turtles. Continue reading for full press release.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals is hosting a website to help automate writing emails and printed letters to your Senator in support of the Shark Conservation Act of 2009, a bill designed to help end shark-finning in U.S. waters. The Act has already passed the House of Representatives and is awaiting action in the Senate. If you life in the USA, head over to the WSPA website now and write a letter to your Senator!
There is an interesting discussion in the forums about what happens if you send an image to a friend and they publish it commercially.
“Could the sending of that email give the dive operator implicit permission or any other right to publish the photograph on their site (hosted in the USA) to promote one of their courses? ... The DMCA counter-claim effectively says that they assume a right to publish because conditions weren’t expressed in the original email.”
A Wetpixel member is in the process of trying to get a photo removed from a dive operator’s website. The dive operator says that they have permission to use it because there were no conditions attached to the email.
Wetpixel was honored to be one of this year’s sponsors for the Bonaire Digital Shootout.
Karen Doody, Ron Lagerloff, and Richard Younger won 1-year subscriptions to Wetpixel Quarterly Magazine. In addition, Terence Fails won a free copy of MarineLife Keywords. Congratulations to Karen, Ron, Richard, Terence, and all the competition winners and participants of this year’s Shootout!