Wetpixel/Under The Jungle Cenote Workshop 2021
Articles
BBC announces winners of 2008 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
The winners of the 2008 BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards have been posted on the Natural History Museum’s website. In the Underwater World category, Brian Skerry took first, runner-up, and specially commended. Other commended images were taken by Jordi Chias, Thomas Peschak, Laurent Piechegut, Amos Nachoum, Noam Kortler, and David Hall.
I’d also like to plug my good friend, Andy Biggs, who won the Wild Places category with his incredible image of the Skeleton Coast in Namibia.
Wetpixel South Africa Ocean Safari 2009 (aka Sardine Run)
Wetpixel announces the South Africa Ocean Safari 2009 (aka the “Sardine Run”). There is no need to introduce the trip—just check out the incredible photos captured by our expedition in 2008! The Wetpixel Ocean Safari is based out of Port St Johns; this means that you may not necessarily get to experience dramatic African surf launches, but you will be able to get out onto the ocean when others cannot.
5 passengers max! Continue reading for full details.
DEMA 2008: People Pictures, Day 3/4
Most people I talked to at DEMA this year thought there would be a rush of people on Saturday because of the Saturday-only “immersion pass” that allows “up-and-coming” industry professionals to visit the show. But in fact, the show started to die down a bit on Friday, and by Saturday, it was virtually dead.
I actually enjoy slower days at conventions because it makes it easier to walk around and talk to everyone. But by the 3rd and 4th day of DEMA, most people on the floor looked like zombies; Matt Segal and I were running on almost no sleep because of our foolish attempts to cover the show live (and our attempts to recover from the party the other night ;).
DEMA 2008: Wetpixel
Special thanks to the Wetpixel and Wetpixel Quarterly team at DEMA, who included me, Matt Segal (administrator), Adam Lau (intern), Michaela Brockstedt (marketing), and Eli Woolery (editor and creative editor). This year, we represented our magazine, Wetpixel Quarterly, and ran around the show floor doing the online underwater photography and video coverage you see here.
Stay tuned for additional coverage from Matt—he’s still in school, and rushed back home after DEMA to take a midterm. He should resurface any day now. :)
DEMA 2008: New World Publications
I wandered over to New World Publications to have a chat with Anna and Ned Deloach, and to have my copies of Blue Water, White Death signed by Stan Waterman, who was stationed at the booth autographing his book, Sea Salt.
New World Publications puts out fish and reef critter ID books for the Caribbean, Eastern Pacific coast, Galapagos, tropical waters, and more.
DEMA 2008: ReefNet
ReefNet has a diverse product line-up, only a part of which caters to underwater photographers. They are well known for their dive data recorders, but were showing off a new flip macro diopter called the SubSee Magnifier. ReefNet also produces a Caribbean fish guide on interactive DVD.
The SubSee Magnifier is compact, and sits on an ABS plastic flip mechanism that can be custom manufactured in 48 hours for any port (on-demand production).
DEMA 2008: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
At the last minute, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society decided to represent themselves at DEMA. Their booth seemed to constantly have a bunch of people around it, and Captain Paul Watson’s presence certainly caused a buzz on the show floor.
SSCS members are currently in New York city doing the radio and TV circuit because Whale Wars premieres on November 7.
DEMA 2008: Nauticam
Nauticam, a total newcomer to the industry, demonstrated their new, patent-pending white-balancing device for dome ports. The WB-PORT is a translucent white iris that can be opened and closed via a knob on the side of the port. Similar to the way an ExpoDisc works, the Nauticam diffuses incoming light, and provides your camera’s sensor with an “average” light value with which to white-balance.
At the moment, you may think that this product is aimed only at the filtered SLR crowd. You’re right, of course, except that we are on the brink of massive convergence. Two SLRs that shoot HD video have already been released…