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

Following the December 25 incident on Northwest airlines, TSA has tightened security measures for travelers, which means that travelers should arrive at airports earlier for increased security checks. In addition, some countries have instituted carry-on baggage policy changes. Although not all airlines have posted updated carry-on baggage policies, examples of new security regulations can be found on both United Airlines' and American Airlines' websites...

Happy holidays! To celebrate the new year, Alex Mustard has started a thread in our forums where you can post your single favorite image from 2009. We hope your year was filled with wonderful adventures underwater and look forward to the coming year.

Head on over to the forums and share your best work!

VIncent LaForet follows up his first ViDSLR short film, Reverie, with Nocturne, a film shot entirely with a Canon 1D Mark IV in available light in Los Angeles. Using Zeiss and Canon fast lenses and ISO of up to 6400, the film showcases the 1D Mark IV’s low video noise capabilities, producing very clean images in low light conditions. Strangely, Canon had originally wanted this film off the internet but has finally approved it just before x’mas. Join in the discussion in our forums as we discuss the implications of such low light ability in HD recording. The Vimeo version is embedded and a link to the 1080p on SmugMug is available.

I’ve just returned from back-to-back Wetpixel expeditions to the remote Eastern Fields atoll in Papua New Guinea, where I found the reefs to be some of the healthiest on the planet.

Excerpt: “A dense collection of sea fans, soft corals, and other reef animals line the entire reef slope from 35 meters to 5 meters in depth, providing underwater photographers with an unlimited number of wide-angle and macro subjects. Anthias and small fish cluster above the coral just below a tangle of parrotfish, wrasses, lionfish, trumpetfish, snappers and angelfish, while jacks, barracuda, and dogtooth tuna hunt from the blue”

Click through for the full trip report and photo album.

Can-Do Film Festival and Competition is an online film festival for Canon EOS ViDSLR filmmakers from all over the world. The inaugural event starts January 01 and submissions will be accepted till March 20th 2010. Winners will be announced by mid-April. This film competition MUST BE entirely shot on Canon’s EOS ViDSLR/HDDSLR cameras only and there is a 4 minute limit on entries. There are various categories including Documentary- Nature which is a natural fit for underwater short films. Good luck and happy shooting!

Award winning photographer and Wetpixel member Fergus Kennedy (Ferg42) is featured in a beautiful new TV commercial for the Canon 7D, which follows him on a shoot with wild horses in the Camargue region in the south of France.

There is also a short film about the whole shoot, which is all topside although Fergus does get his in the water, on the Canon website.

Wetpixel’s Alex Mustard continues his new series of interview based articles on the techniques of underwater photography with A Conversation with Espen Rekdal the reigning CMAS World Champion of underwater photography, from Norway.

In the interview we discuss some of the techniques, equipment and philosophies of strobe lighting, not just in terms of controlling the quantity of light, but also the quality. We also talk a bit about fisheye photography and supermacro, including one of Espen’s recent specialities, open water supermacro. 

The new Nauticam housing line has been the focus of much interest in the Wetpixel forums since its official unveiling at DEMA in Orlando. David Henshaw recently had the chance to complete this field review on a pre-production version of the Nikon D90 housing.

I believe that this is the first review published on any housing from Nauticam, so even if you are not a Nikon D90 user it is worth reading to the review for an opinion on this new line of housings.

The winners have been announced for the 47th Annual International Underwater Photographic Competition presented by the Los Angeles Underwater Photographic Society (LAUPS). Congratulations to all the winners, many of whom are Wetpixel members and especially to Uwe Schmolke who photo of mating mandarinfish was named Best Of Show.

The competition, which is only open to amateur photographers, attracted entries from 24 countries and 15 states, and was judged by Georgienne Bradley, Tom Campbell and Jay Ireland.

A photo of the wreck of the HMS Royal Oak, taken by Underwater Photography Magazine editor and Wetpixel member Peter Rowlands was presented to HRH Princess Anne to mark the 70th Anniversary of its sinking. The Royal Oak was torpedoed, while at anchor in Scapa Flow, by a German submarine U-47 in 1939, with the loss of 833 lives.

The wreck is protected as a war grave and unauthorised dives are not permitted. Continue reading for Peter’s, typically self deprecating, take on the picture presentation ceremony…