New Seascape Initiative stretches from Costa Rica to Ecuador, safeguarding threatened marine habitats

Please welcome award-winning photographer and marine biologist Dr. Alex Mustard, who has joined Wetpixel as a moderator. All of us are looking forward to having Alex on board; we will certainly learn a lot from his experimental photography and wisdom in the way of fish and coral behavioUr.

Bio: Alex Mustard has been taking underwater pictures since he was 9, and got his first digital SLR housing in 2002. Since then he has been actively pushing digital forward in the UK, running and speaking at the British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSOUP) first digital evening and being the main digital speaker at the UK's Visions in the Sea conference 2003. Alex's images have won many awards, most notably four from the prestigious Antibes Festival in 2002. Dr Mustard's day job is as a marine biologist.

Alex founded the internet based Young Underwater Photographers' Group and is a committee member of BSOUP.

Visit BENEATH THE SEA 2004's web site and get a firsthand look at the winners of the Worldwide Underwater PHOTOGRAPHY/VIDEO COMPETITION. Log on and take a look!


Best in Show: DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
"Goby and Wire Coral" | Mark Snyder, Astoria, New York
Next, with only their imagination as a guide, see how the children create their impressions of this year's OCEAN PALS NATIONAL POSTER CONTEST theme. So log on for a peek at this year's winning posters, truly creative inspirational work!

We have just moved our photo contest from the forums into a new gallery module. The currently running forum contest, "Eye Contact," will be the last to be hosted in the forums. Special thanks to Cybergolfish for his dedication in running the contest for the last year!

We're also arranging to have sponsor-donated prizes awarded to contest winners. Let the games begin (continue)!

Note that the first contest using the new format is LIVE, so head on over to the related link below and submit a photo!

Peter Schulz demonstrates the corrective power of Panorama Tools, a free Windows utility. Excerpt:

When shooting underwater, the effects of wide angle distortion are often not noticeable because, unlike buildings, there are few straight lines. After all, who knows how round a French Angelfish really is. But with wrecks and panoramic reef shots distortion becomes very noticeable.

Fortunately there is a software fix for this problem. It's called PanoTools. PanoTools plugins are available for Adobe PS, Adobe Elements, and Paint Shop Pro that run on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. And the plugins are free!

As the RAW format becomes widely available, many digital shooters wonder if this format is “better” than shooting JPEG - of course, “better” often depends on the circumstances. This short column will describe the difference between the two formats and pros and cons of shooting one versus the other.

Wide angle pictures frequently suffer from distortion. Fortunately there is a software fix for this problem called PanoTools. Contributor Peter Schultz explains how to use this powerful tool.

Congratulations to Wetpixel member Lazaro Ruda, who is Rodales' photographer of the week! Laz's photographs are a fine example of what can be accomplished with the Olympus C5050, a high-end 5 megapixel consumer digicam.

Ocean Brite Systems and Equinox Underwater Products are proud to announce the pending release of new, affordable housing for the Canon EOS 300D, the Nikon D70, the Canon Powershot Pro 1, the Nikon Coolpix 8700 and the Olympus C8080Z Digital Cameras.

The Housings will become available as the cameras become available in the USA market, the first being the Canon 300D Digital Rebel Housing, with shipments commencing in April 2004.

Hello, readers. I've been working hard tonight, and have completed a few updates to Wetpixel's feature-set:

1) Digideep POTW Syndication
2) Affiliate Links
3) User Interface Tweaks
4) Short URL Implementation

Continue reading for more information.