The 2016 Lembeh-Gulen Shootout is underway! This event will pit two teams, one in Gulen Dive Resort, Norway and the other in Lembeh Resort, Indonesia in a head-to-head battle for the next week.

The teams will each have a day’s training under the tutelage of expert team captains Tobias Friedrich and Keri Wilk, before a day of competition shooting. The contest’s theme on Sunday is nudibranchs, so the respective teams are out today reconnoitering the best places to find willing subjects and practicing techniques to capture stand out images.

On Sunday evening, each team will be submitting a selection of images for posting onto the event’s Facebook site for a public vote. The images will be posted for one day only, when the number of likes each image has received will be tallied in order to award a winner. The nudibranch images will be posted for voting on 23 May.

Alex Mustard is also assisting with the event, providing input into the judging process and assisting both sets of contestants to achieve their best images.

This process will repeat itself three times: The next theme is Invertebrate Life, with the images being available for public voting on 25 May

Lembeh Resort’s resident marine biologist, Dimpy Jacobs, has now been trained in using a drysuit by the team at Gulen and is now in place to help the contestants there get some amazing shots.

Wetpixel’s Abi Mullens is in Lembeh and is posting here live from the event. Adam Hanlon is making his way to Norway and will also be posting updates from the field shortly! Please follow the Wetpixel Instagram and Twitter and the hashtag #crittershootout feeds for breaking news too…

1. Introduction to the shootout.
2. Day 1: reports.
3. Day 2: Nudibranch competition day.
4. Day 3: Invertebrate practice day.
5. Nudibranch results.
6. Day 4: Invertebrate competition day.
7. Day 5: Fish practice day.
8. Invertebrate results.