Underwater News
2016 Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition Announced; Over $75,000 in Prizes will be Awarded.
The Underwater Photography Guide is pleased to announce that the prestigious Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition 2016 will be accepting images today through November 22, 2016.
Culver City, CA - August 23, 2016 - The Underwater Photography Guide is proud to announce that it is accepting entries for the 6th annual Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition.
Ocean Art is one of the most prestigious underwater photo competitions in the world. A long list of prizes valued at over $75,000 also makes it one of the richest, attracting pro to amateur photographers across the globe. Sixteen categories ensure all photo disciplines and cameras compete fairly, while the 75+ winning images create a portfolio of the best underwater photos of the year.
Ocean Art prizes are provided by over 35 scuba diving resort, liveaboard dive yacht, and underwater photo gear manufacturers. Grand prizes are a choice of Indonesia liveaboard itinerary on the S.M.Y. Ondina, a 10 night Cocos Island liveaboard trip with the Undersea Hunter Group, a 7 night liveaboard trip on the Palau Siren, a 7 night Solomon Islands liveaboard trip with Bilikiki Cruises, a ...
The trip is a bit long but my wife Agnese and me we got used.
And so, after 26 hours flying from Milan to Cebu, we have to drive three hours to reach the Sampaguita Resort in Moal Boal. We arrive at 8pm and after a tasty dinner and a couple of mojitos we go to the room for a good night's sleep. The next day, an employee comes to wake us up because... It's already time for lunch! When we get out from our bungalow we immediately appreciate the sunshine, the garden, the palm trees and the view of the sea.
We realize now that we will spend the holiday in very relaxing and enjoyable place. The resort is very simple and basic but the great thing is that after a couple of days you feel to be at home.
The bar's terrace restaurant is very cozy and is situated directly on the reef.
After lunch we bring our diving equipment to the diving center, and then we check and fit all our cameras in their housings: two housing for dslr cameras, one for a compact one, six strobes, four cameras, cables, batteries, arms, glasses...about seventy pounds of stuff! Of course we know that most of our dives will be dedicated to macro photography. Once everything is settled we go for a dive to test all our equipment.
We can do unlimited dives on local reefs, and every day we'll mak...
We can't say HONDURAS is unknown to scuba divers. Roatan is known and so is Utila, both of them dive locations that do attract scuba divers, mostly from the US, and do provide plenty of dive centers and all the dive logistics, keen divers do expect.
And then there are the CAYOS COCHINOS, a group of small islands just between the mainland of Honduras and Roatan. Cochinos Cays are a group of two small islands (15°58'18.99"N86°28'31.34"W) (Cayo Menor and Cayo Grande) and 13 more small coral cays situated 30 kilometres (19mi) northeast of La Ceiba on the northern shores of Honduras.
The Cayos are part of the Bay Islands (Islas de la Bahía ), some people still like to call them Hog Islands, referring to the famous pirate Henry Morgan who ( this it what the legends tells ) "planted" hogs on these cays so he and his pirate fellows would have meat on their return trips.
Around 100 people (Garifuna people) are living on those islands, and yes, scuba-diving is possible! "The Cayos Cochinos reefs are the least disturbed ecosystem in the Bay Islands. The waters around this collection of coral cays are a marine biologist's dream: protected by the government, off-limits to commercial divers and fishermen, and busy with creatures that ...
We all see many excellent macro photos every day, but what does it take to stand out from the crowd? It's simple - add some rarely seen marine life behavior to your trip portfolio. A good behavior shot will take some time and will probably not impress your non-diving friends any more than a regular shot, but divers and photographers will respect the planning, skill and luck involved in getting the shot. This nod from more seasoned photographers makes the effort well worth it.
Here are a few of my thoughts on capturing unique and rare behavior shots, whether you are camping out waiting for a precise moment or randomly notice something in the corner of your eye.
1. Do Your Homework
Yes, this tip is in every article, but it's especially important for macro marine life behavior. I have seen lucky photographers shoot hatching eggs without even knowing it. Imagine if they knew what was happening and had spent more time getting the shot, or even calling over their dive buddy. Recognizing behavior like feeding, hunting, cleaning, mating, aggression and protection can help you decide when a photo opportunity is unique enough to spend the rest of your dive with.
2. Work Quickly and Methodically
Some marine life behavior is fairly common and d...
Sheikh Coast : a diving center UWP friendly
In recent years, I have visited Sharm several times. It has always been my favorite destination since 1993.
Its proximity and abundance of underwater life have always made it, to my eyes, a place of incomparable quality/price ratio.
My approach to underwater photography has started in 2011 and since then I realized that, talking about logistics, my needs have progressively changed.
Comparing with friends sharing the same passion, the emerging common thought was that in Sharm you could hardly find the ideal conditions to meet the needs of the "annoying" category represented by underwater photographers.
The organization of the diving centers, the "traffic" of boats at the diving sites and the sites themselves, were not the best for photography.
Then I learned from some friends that recently, at the Sheikh Coast Diving Center (inside the Domina Coral Bay of Sharm El Sheikh), is growing a pole increasingly attentive to the needs of fans of underwater photography, under the influence of Pierpaolo Peluso, the diving center responsible for sales and marketing, as well as guide and underwater photographer.
Hence, after that in recent years my diving and photographic destinations have been especially Maldive...
Congratulations to the winners of the 2015 Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition. There are many incredible entries and have awarded over $70,000 in prizes to the winning photographers.
Winners were asked to rank their prize choices and were awarded 1 prize based on totaling points from all their winning photos.
Special thanks to Tony Wu, Martin Edge, Marty Snyderman and Scott Gietler for judging the competition.
For more info end for the judges' comments go to Ocean Art 2015 page
Heare a list of all categories, click on each one ans see the winners image!
Wide-Angle
Macro
Cold Water
Portrait
Marine Life Behavior
Novice DSLR
Mirrorless Macro
Mirrorless Behavior
Mirrorless Wide-Angle
Compact Macro
Compact Behavior
Compact Wide-Angle
Nudibranchs
SuperMacro
Pool / Conceptual
Winners images
Read all about it
April 2015: Finally, after months of waiting, the time has come to make the TOP journey we were longing for.
We left Italy, via Madrid and Miami, and arrived in San Jos?. The next day, from the port of Punta Arenas, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, we boarded the Okeanos Aggressor, a boat 36 meters long, capable of 10 cabins for 20 guests in addition to the crew.
Exquisitely greeted by the captain, his deputy and the crew, after a welcome aperitif and a crew and boat introduction, we finally left towards the Isla Del Coco.
During the 36 hours sailing needed to cover the 300 nautical miles, we met the other guests. Surprisingly, on board there's a group of seven Italians including us, while the others come from various Countries, including the US, Canada, France, Switzerland, Mexico, and even Israel.
Expectations about the holiday grew during the crossing, since one of our Italian fellow travelers is a regular visitor of Cocos (this will be his fourth cruise, the last in 2011), and showed us videos and photos of his previous trips.
Isla Del Coco, considered one of the best diving destinations in the world for encounters with hammerhead sharks and other pelagic fish such as manta rays, whale, gray, tiger and Galapagos sharks, i...
Popular Dive Sites around Tioman Island
Tiger Reef
As far as I'm concerned, this is the most beautiful dive site in Tioman without a doubt. This submerged underwater pinnacle, situated between Pulau Labas and Pulau Sepoi, begins at 12 m deep and slides down to deeper than 40 m, embracing small boulders & caves covered with colorful soft coral and underwater swim-through formations in between, which makes perfect for wide-angle photography. The rock formation is simply amazing because everything is covered in soft coral, hard corals, sea whips, crinoids, sea fans and barrel sponges. The coral life here is relatively well-preserved because this site is rarely dived. Strong currents often bring schools of yellow snappers, fusiliers, barracudas, jacks, turtles and sharks whilst colorful tropical reef fish such as angelfish, butterfly fish, emperor angelfish and parrot fish, etc.often wander carelessly through diversely shaped sea fans & barrel sponge corals at the deepest part. At 45-48m deep, there is also a weirdly shaped sponge coral area, looking like a kind of sculpture museum, which is the best theme park that I've ever visited.
Bahara Rock / Bahara Light House
Locally knwon as Tokong Bahara, this is my second favorite dive site on ...
This is the fifth part of our special articles about Thecnical Diving. Read also [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4]
As you may have read in the previous issue, all members of Team Pitch Blue managed to pass the brutal T1 course. Amazingly enough, the whole team stayed together after that and we did a lot of diving together. In fact, since then we have been joined by Cees (nicknamed Case / father of team-member Jeroen), Richard (nicknamed UMM) and Thomas (nicknamed TL). These divers were certified a year earlier, but unfortunately Case saw his team fall apart due to a combination of money and time constraints of his other team and UMM? just wants to dive as much as possible and is actually diving in two teams. Team member Thomas is also our technical support. If TL can't fix it...no one can. With his ridiculously heavy toolbox he more than once managed to save dives that otherwise would have been cancelled.
They were more than welcome in Team Pitch Blue and an additional benefit for us is that Case is a more than gifted underwater photographer. The pictures in these articles and all pictures on our Facebook page are of course taken by Case. They have joined us to keep practicing and we maintain our team dive skills every Sunday at Scuba Academie Vinkeveen. But they also plan t...
Only 1 week from the Ocean Art contest deadline!!
Over $75,000 in prizes
15 Categories (including 3 new mirrorless camera categories & pool/conceptual with no post-processing restrictions)
For more info www.uwphotographyguide.com/ocean-art
The Underwater Photography Guide is pleased to announce that the prestigious Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition 2015 will be accepting images today through November 24, 2015.
Culver City, CA - August 12, 2015 - the Underwater Photography Guide is proud to announce that it is accepting entries for the 5th annual Ocean Art Photo Competition.
There is over $75,000 worth of prizes, including over 20 scuba diving resort, liveaboard dive yacht and underwater photo gear packages. Grand prizes are a choice of Indonesia liveaboard itinerary on the S.M.Y. Ondina, a 7 night dive package at Misool Eco Resort in Indonesia, a 7 night Solomon Islands liveaboard trip with Bilikiki Cruises, an 8 night combo dive package on the MV FeBrina and Walindi Plantation Resort in Papua New Guinea, a 7 night liveaboard trip on the S/Y Fiji Siren, a 10 night dive package at Lissenung Island Resort...
Culver City, California - We are excited to announce the winners of the 5th Annual SoCal Shootout. With excellent conditions, our highest number of participants and overall great photographers this year we had an intense competition with some really fantastic entries. In the end, the best in show prize went to Brook Peterson with a stunning sea lion behavior shot. Ben Hofilena and Christopher Borel took first place in the Open Wide and Mirrorless Wide Angle categories respectively with colorful, fish filled photos from our local Oil Rigs.
Our new categories for this year, Mirrorless Wide Angle and Mirrorless Macro were extremely successful with many entries showcasing the beauty of the California waters. In addition we continued to have a strong video competition with Todd Kortte taking first place in our edited video category with his stunning edit of bait-fish schooling among the oil rigs.
Compact shooters continued to amaze with incredible kelp forest scenes from Compact Wide winner Ty Oliver, and Compact Macro winner Michal Ross.
See below for the full list of winners, all winning photos can be found at : http://www.bluewaterphotostore.com/2015-socal-shootout-results
The 5th Annual SoCal Shootout weekend took place September 18th-20th, ...
iSeahorse: Saving seahorses through citizen science\r\n\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\nHave you ever spotted a seahorse during one of your dives?
\r\nThen youve experienced the exhilaration these incredible animals can bring you, just by being in their presence. Seahorses are such intriguing and charismatic creatures. Yes, they are fish, but they sure don?t look like it. They are masters of camouflage and are biologically unique given that the males give birth. The more you learn about seahorses, the more fascinating they become.
\r\nAs a diver, you probably also know that seahorses are challenging to find. Unfortunately, their remarkable camouflaging capabilities and their vast geographical range make it difficult for scientists to study them in the wild. \r\n\r\nWhy do we need to study seahorses?
\r\nAs amazing as these amazing animals are, they are also at risk. Seahorses are threatened by overfishing and habitat destruction, as they mainly inhabit shallow, coastal waters that are highly influenced by human activity. Additionally, millions of seahorses are caught and traded globally each year for use in aquarium displays, traditional Chinese medicine, and curios.
\r\nTo date, 11 seahorse species are listed as threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species...
The International Underwater Photography Contest "Abyss-City of Venice" has come to his eighth editon and also this year the exhibition of the photo of the winners and the award ceremony will be held at the Museum of Natural History of Venice.
During the previous seven editions more than 400 underwater photographers from all over the world have partecipated with around 2500 images, and the exhibitions has been visited by more than 30000 people.
This edition will be sponsored by the Museum of Natural History and Fondazione Musei Civici, Comune di Venezia DAN Europe and Scubashooters.net and supported by 39 sponsors.
The prizes will be very rich: scuba diving gear, uw photography equipment, pieces of art of Murano glass, a cruise in Sudan and some special prizes offered by Dan Europe. Entries and photos will be accepted till the 25th of September.
You can find more info from www.underwaterphoto-venice.it
Competition Rules ENG
Bando del Concorso ITA
...
2015 Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition Announced; Over $75,000 in Prizes will be Awarded.
The Underwater Photography Guide is pleased to announce that the prestigious Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition 2015 will be accepting images today through November 24, 2015.
Culver City, CA ? August 12, 2015 ? the Underwater Photography Guide is proud to announce that it is accepting entries for the 5th annual Ocean Art Photo Competition.
There is over $75,000 worth of prizes, including over 20 scuba diving resort, liveaboard dive yacht and underwater photo gear packages. Grand prizes are a choice of Indonesia liveaboard itinerary on the S.M.Y. Ondina, a 7 night dive package at Misool Eco Resort in Indonesia, a 7 night Solomon Islands liveaboard trip with Bilikiki Cruises, an 8 night combo dive package on the MV FeBrina and Walindi Plantation Resort in Papua New Guinea, a 7 night liveaboard trip on the S/Y Fiji Siren, a 10 night dive package at Lissenung Island Resort in Papua New Guinea, a 7 night dive package at Tawali Resort in Papua New Guinea, a 7 night dive package at Atmosphere Resort & S...
If you don't know by now, Anilao in the Philippines is one of the best places on the planet for underwater macro photography.
Just two and a half hours drive south of Manila, with over 400 dive resorts to choose from, it boils down to ease of access, dive guides and your budget.
This past April, we selected the Anilao Photo Hotel to host our Underwater Photo Workshop. Owned and operated by renowned Tim Ho, an advocate for point and shoot?no strobe underwater photography and boy if you haven't seen what he can do with an Olympus TG2, go have a look on Facebook Underwater Art! That little camera is enough to make most macro shooters turn in their SLR's.
Of course learning how to get the maximum out of your camera is what Tim professes. Anilao is about the underwater photography. Eat, sleep and dive, upload?download, and get up and go do it again. Most of the dive guides at Anilao Photo Hotel have all won awards for their photography in the Anilao Photo contests. The Anilao Photo Hotel is a simple hotel offering 6 rooms with air conditioning and 6 without, serving typical Philippine fare. It is not fancy, but they do have a great layout, comfortable rooms, dedicated camera rinse tanks, an excellent dive platf...
We are pleased to show you the first issue of "Scubashooters.net E-Magazine" !
Here a short presentation
Dear Scubashooters,
It's a great pleasure for me to introduce you to our new e-magazine. It will be a bi Monthly publication available for free on our network and we will feature always nice photos and interesting information and news from the world of UW photography, our world. Putting the e-magazine out of his mind was a crazy idea of my fellow friend and Administrator Fabio Strazzi. It is thanks to his will and to you that this project has now become reality.
It's not even two years that the scubashooters network took its way to the outer world and our numbers are pretty and growing bigger and bigger day after day. We are convinced that an e-Magazine will be another great content for you dear lovers of the sea and for this first issue we will feature the portfolio of Mr Adriano Morettin from Italy. You will be amazed by the quality of his work. Beside being among the best photographers of the globe, Adriano is always trying to show us the beauty of mediterranean creatures and he likes to challenge himself shooting non easy subject such as jellyfishes; you will be amazed staring at Adriano's Jellyfishes of Italy.
In this first...
UWPC is the largest underwater photo challenge in Asia Pacific, hosted by the Diving and Resort Travel Expo (DRT Show) and EZDIVE magazine. UWPC is open to entrants of all skill levels.
Asia Pacific UW Photo Challenge (UWPC) aims at finding excellent underwater photographers, and understanding their works thoroughly. We hope to promote the art of underwater photography and scuba diving in the Asia Pacific Region, and to promote the protection of the marine environment and guide a green and healthy lifestyle through the challenge.
Welcome to participate the Asia Pacific UW Photo Challenge! Upload and submit your photos online at www.uwphotochallenge.com
Download and read what you have to do to join the contest : How to submit your photo
Guidelines
The Asia Pacific Underwater Photo Challenge, hosted by DRT Show, is open to entrants of all skill levels.
All submitted images must have been taken by the entrant and taken underwater.
Each individual can only win one prize or prize package. Entrants with multiple winning entries will be given priority in prizes by value.
Any images that have won or placed in photo contests with winning entries may not be submitted.
Photographers retain all copyrights to their images. DRT Show and EZDIVE Magazine retain...
The Underwater Photography Guide has just announced the winners of the 2014 Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition. This news is very exciting, with over 70 underwater images to admire.
This year's Ocean Art Competition attracted a very high caliber of photos, representing entrants from over 50 countries.
Over $70,000 of prizes will be awarded to 60 underwater photographers, highlighted by an 11-day Indonesia liveaboard trip on the SMY Ondina, a 7-night dive package at Paradise Taveuni Resort in Fiji, a 7-night Maldives liveaboard trip on the Manthiri, a 7-night Solomon Islands liveaboard trip on the Bilikiki, a 10-night dive package at Lissenung Dive Resort in Papua New Guinea and a variety of gift certificates from Bluewater Photo. Premium prizes are provided by Villa Markisa (Bali), the Discovery Fleet (Tubbataha), Emperor Divers (Maldives), VoliVoli (Fiji), Atmosphere (Philippines), Kosrae Nautilus Resort (Micronesia), Atlantis Philippines, Wananavu (Fiji), Palau Dive Adventures, Mike Ball Dive Expeditions (Australia), Alor Divers (Indonesia), Manta Ray Bay (Yap), El Galleon (Philippines), Maluku Divers (Indonesia), Juliana?s Hotel & Sea Saba Dive Center (Caribbean), Eco Divers Resort Lembeh, Blackbeard?s Cruises (Bahamas), Scuba Seraya (Bali) and Bluewater Travel.
Ocean Art 2014 judges included ...
The Natural History Museum has now officially become the charming and cozy choice for the International Competition of Underwater Photography Deep-City of Venice, now in its seventh edition. The exhibition of thirty-three winning images in the Galleria Cetacean under the impressive whale skeleton has ever seen as the influx of hundreds of Italian and foreign visitors. Ninety participants from the United States, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Indonesia, England, Norway and Italy have submitted three hundred ninetytwo underwater photographs taken around the world.
The photographers competed in the categories SLR and Compact cameras, divided into Macro and Wide angle Tropical and Mediterranean. Added to this are the categories Crabs, dedicated to the Museum, Plastic Sea, born from a project of Eleonora De Sabata in collaboration with Medsharks, and Donna Fotosub. Claudio Bertasini, Gianni Neto and Giuseppe Pignataro had to struggle hard to select the top ten photos of each category because of the high technical level. Isabella Maffei wins again the prize Woman Fotosub, while the Spanish Elisabeth Espinalt yook the first place in the category Crabs, which was attended by 68 competitors. The ranking still speaks Spanish thanks to the laurels that have ...
I'm on board: Sachika Safari boat. I want to see "big stuff" and this is the perfect place... Life is like that: being in the right place at the right time. And this is the right boat...
It 'just after dawn and we are going to have the first dive.
6:15 am. A cup of tea and I'm ready to set my photographic equipment. The dhoni crew have already set up and checked the thanks, the jacket and all the underwater equipment. They are waiting for us.
Usually I have to assemble the equipment and check everything by myself but here I’m relieved of any task concerning diving stuff.
What are we going to discover today? Tree, four dives a day, feeling amazed and thrilled at any time.
Sharks, this morning!
So many elegant gray sharks and the harmless white tips sharks! Giacomo Ganda, the dive leader is a marine byologist, expert in maldivian dives. He tells us that there will be a lot of underwater current in this place. We will use hooks to latch on the rocks. It goes without saying: no currents, no sharks.
We go down quickly and suddendly we see grey sharks hunting near the passe. They are quiet, not concerned with us. We stop near a rock waiting for them to come nearer. Standing still, we admire their amazing...
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