Underwater Photography and Videography, News, Forums, Trips, Photo Contests :: Wetpixel.com

Twelve of the world’s most remarkable underwater photographers have joined forces to produce Oceans 12 calendar in support of Bite-Back, the UK based shark and marine conservation organisation. The photographers include Wetpixel’s own Eric Cheng and Alex Mustard, as well as celebrated names including Jeff Rotman, Doug Perrine, David Doubilet, Brian Skerry, Amos Nachoum and Michael Aw.

The 2010 fundraising calendar costs just £7.99 GBP (+p&p), celebrates the oceans, draws attention to urgent marine conservation issues and makes an ideal gift!

Over the last decade Raja Ampat has become one of the most desirable diving destinations in the world.  With their new book, Diving Indonesia’s Raja Ampat, Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock guide us through the wonders of diving on the most biodiverse coral reefs.

This 146 page book, is an ideal size for travel, costs $25 USD and is the only diving guide that has been published about the wonders of Raja Ampat. Continue reading for Wetpixel’s Alex Mustard review.

A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology has finally answered the conundrum of why hammerheads have their distinctive heads. The study, the first to test their binocular vision, the area where the fields of two eyes overlap that allows accurate perception of depth and distance, found that the area of binocular vision increases the wider apart the eyes are.

Although the hammer also provides hydrodynamic and hunting benefits, improved binocular vision is an mechanism that could drive its evolution. In addition to binocular vision, hammerhead’s have exellent 360 degree vision, and are even able to see behind them because of their distinctive, waggling swimming action. 

Aquatica are pleased to announce their new housing for the Canon 7D. The housing is competitively price with suggested retail of $2799 USD and is available with either standard electronic or optical strobe connectors.

There is already much discussion about the housing in our forums, where Jean Bruneau of Aquatica has revealed that, conservatively, he expects deliveries to begin in early January.

Our friends over at Dive Photo Guide have launched a new version of their popular website with a large amount of new content, while retaining old favourites like their popular galleries.The site is under development and look out for updates in the coming weeks.

Certain to be a popular feature is the new DPG Techniques Guide to underwater photography, written by the DGP staff with contributions from leading underwater photographers such as Jason Bradley, David Doubilet, Martin Edge, Alex Mustard and Aaron Wong.

Wetpixel member Tim Moran (timmoranuk) reports from the 12th Visions In The Sea Conference, which this year moved from London to be held for the first time in Manchester, UK. The speakers at this year’s event included Cathy Church, Martin Edge, Charles Hood, Alex Mustard and Peter Scoones.

Tim’s report gives a great flavour for this unique event which consists entirely of talks designed to help them get their own stunning images. The event also raised £2000 for the Shark Trust and showcased an international underwater photography competition. Several Wetpixel members were amongst the winners…

Doug and Lorenza Sloss announce their latest easy to follow instructional video Photoshop CS4 for the Underwater Photographer.

With 10 hours of content, real life examples, this is a guide to the correct way of using Photoshop CS4 for correcting and manipulating the underwater photographs. The cost is $99 plus shipping.

Congratulations to all the winners in the Festival Mondial de l’Image Sous-Marine, 2009. Highlights include Palm D’Or in the professional films going to the BBC’s Nature’s Great Events The Great Tide, Palm D’Or in the non-professional films being awarded to Sébastien Hiebot for his film on Raja Ampat.

In still photography the Plongeur D’Or in the prestigious portfolios went to Adrianno Morettin, Dennis Vandermeersch won the Plongeur D’Or in the colour prints and Keri Wilk won the Plongeur D’Or in the black and white prints. The important World Prize for the best book of underwater photography went to Michael Aw for Heart Of The Ocean.

Shark Savers and WildAid are collaborating on a multi-media campaign in China targeting the consumers of shark fin soup. For $100 you can fund a "Say 'no' to shark fin soup" bus stop billboard featuring basketball star Yao Ming, one of China's most popular and influential citizens. For a limited time, a sponsor of Shark Savers is matching donations, so your $100 gets TWO billboards put up.

This campaign targets the largest consumers of shark fin via a local hero's influence -- fighting from the inside is the only effective way to stop shark finning in the long term.

Last year, WildAid had 200 billboards in Beijing for 3 months. In a survey, 19% of Beijingers responding remembered having seen the boards and 82% of those people said they would stop or reduce their consumption of shark fin soup. Imagine the power of 1000 billboards for an entire year. This campaign works and your billboard will have an impact!

In general, I am cynical about Western efforts to stop shark finning, but this campaign really caught my eye, and I've used my wallet to voice support. For $100, I just sponsored two billboards.

The Oxfam Asia Pacific Appeal fund has been chosen as the beneficiary of Wetpixel's first official charity drive. The various natural disasters in the region has taken thousands of lives and made millions homeless. This charity drive is designed to help those in the region get back on their feet by providing food, shelter and later infrastructural repairs.

Nine photographs were generously donated by photographers who feel the need to help those affected by natural disaster. Wetpixel is selling prints of these photographs until January 15, 2010. All proceeds will be donated to Oxfam. More information about the charity drive can be found at http://wetpixel.com/oxfam