Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Wetpixel Quarterly events in SF

Wetpixel Quarterly is having a series of 3 events at Sports Basement in San Francisco. The first one is tonight: Friday April 3rd 6:30 - 8:00 pm. There will be a gallery show of about 16 images by Eric Cheng and Eli Woolery, followed by a presentation by Eli on getting started with underwater photography, with a hands-on demo of gear, cameras, housing and so on. This is a great opportunity for anyone who is interested in getting started taking pictures underwater.

Free wine, cheese, beer, snacks and the opening of Ocean in Focus. The evening is also an opportunity to sign up for a subscription. Future events will take place on the 9th and 23rd April 2009 at 6:30pm, also at Sportsbasement in the Mission, 1590 Bryant St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA.

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

London International Dive Show this weekend

LIDS, the London International Dive Show, takes place this weekend (28th/29th March 2009) at the Excel Centre in Docklands, London, UK, with many attractions for the underwater photographer.

Wetpixel’s Associate Editor Alex Mustard will again be co-hosting the Digital Photo Clinic with Wetpixel member Saeed Rashid and Paul Duxfield. Wetpixel member John Bantin will be presenting A Job To Do, recounting in his inimitable style life as DIVER Magazine’s Technical Editor. Other speakers include Monty Halls, Captain Paul Watson and Jack Ingle.

Also of interest to photographers will be a display of the best 80 prints from the BSoUP/DIVER Print Competition. Show-goers are invited to vote for their favourites. There are several Exhibitor Seminars also focused on the techniques of underwater photography.

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Sensational Seas Two issues call for submissions

New World Publications has announced a sequel to the popular Sensational Seas: Rare Sights from the Sea 2004 DVD - Sensational Seas Two. Scheduled for release in March 2010, the company is hoping to gather “unique video from the marine world, of fish and creatures that are very rare or are behaving in a very unusual way or engaged in a rarely observed behavior.”

Veteran filmmaker Stan Waterman will again lend his skills as narrator, and all proceeds benefit REEF and Ocean Pal’s Foundation. Continue reading for the full press release, or read the submission guidelines - the deadline is June 15, 2009!

Monday, March 16th, 2009

Hawaiian HB366 manta ray bill passes House, moves to Senate

Last month we posted about legislation to protect manta rays in Hawaiian water and how you could support it. We just received an update from the Manta Pacific Research Foundation and an email from Tim Clark of the University of Hawaii letting us know that the House voted to pass the bill unopposed.

While this is great news, work still needs to be done as the bill will now go to the Senate. Please continue your support and pressure, this bill is needed to protect the mantas. It will not prevent collection for valid research and aquarium use, however it will mean that the collection process will be more thoroughly regulated. As before, testimony in support of the measure can be sent to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Monday, March 16th, 2009

BUIF 2009 - Last call for entries

There is just a matter of weeks left for photographers and filmmakers to enter the 2009 British Underwater Image Festival (BUIF) sponsored by Canon and Cameras Underwater. There are thousands of pounds worth of prizes up for grabs for the winners and runners up in the seven competition categories for stills and videos. Finalists of BUIF 2009 will be showcased at the Dive Fest in Cornwall on 15-17 May 2009, while prints will go on a month-long public display at Plymouth’s National Marine Aquarium in the summer.

The deadline for receipt of entries for BUIF 2009 is 31 March 2009. Judges include Alex Mustard, Colin Doeg, Charles Hood Simon Rogerson and Peter Scoones.

Monday, March 16th, 2009

Beneath the Sea 2009 contest winners announced

The winning images of the Beneath the Sea 2009 Worldwide Underwater Photography/Video Competition have been announced, with, as in previous years, many familiar names and Wetpixel personalities in the list of winners. The Best of Show was awarded to Wetpixel member Cal Mero for his photo of a leafy sea dragon.

All winning images will be shown at the Saturday night film festival during the weekend of Beneath the Sea‘s Ocean Adventure and Travel Exposition, March 27th, 28th and 29th, 2008, at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey. Congratulations, all!

Friday, March 13th, 2009

Flasher wrasse heaven in Southern Halmahera

The 45-day Wetpixel Ultimate Indonesia expedition is well underway. We spent 6 days diving our brains out in Lembeh Strait, and are now aboard the Seven Seas liveaboard vessel exploring Halmahera. Yesterday, we dove in a mangrove channel near Obit Island in Southern Halmahera.

I had planned on taking the day off to let my ears recover after 11 days of intense diving, but the group came back from the first dive, reporting a huge population of flasher wrasse in mere meters of water. I had to go see it for myself. At around 4pm, I dropped into the shallows and spent an hour watching over a dozen male flasher wrasse competing with each other in courtship behavior amongst their many harems…

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Canon announces AF fix, firmware update for 1D/1Ds Mark III dSLR

At PMA last week, Canon announced a new AF fix for its flagship cameras, the EOS-1D Mark III and EOS-1Ds Mark III, related to the accuracy of focusing using other than the center AF point, and are offering free check-up and repair of affected cameras. In addition, the company released a firmware update for both cameras to fix minor issues with Live View and tether-modes, and implement the addition of more detailed error codes (instead of the standard “Error 99”) to quickly identify the source of any problems.

At the same time, Adobe released an updated Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw v5.3, adding camera support for the Nikon D3X and the Olympus E-30 and fixing a variety of previous LR2 issues, including “a memory leak could cause Lightroom to crash while attempting to process files with local adjustment.” Reports from the forums about the upgrade seem to be positive so far!

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

San Diego Underwater Photographic Society Film Festival 2009

The 40th annual San Diego Underwater Photographic Society Film Festival, scheduled for Saturday evening, April 25, 2009 at the Qualcomm Hall in San Diego, CA, has begun selling tickets to attend the event. The evening will feature a film by Steve Drogin, matinee show with submissions by SDUPS members, and audience voting to determine the $500 first-place prize winner of the worldwide film contest.

This is bound to be a great event with a number of well-known personalities from the underwater world - purchase tickets online, or announce your plans to attend in the forums!

Monday, March 9th, 2009

Underwater Journal issue 10 available for download

Underwater Journal Issue 10 was recently made available for download. Featured article topics include the Undersea Voyager project, a review of the Aquatica 40D housing by Wetpixel member Doug Ebersole, a summary article on digital point-and-shoot cameras, and report on the loggerhead turtle hatching.

Underwater Journal is a free PDF magazine, published bimonthly by Wetpixel member Walt Stearns.

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