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

Renowned underwater photographer and educator Marty Snyderman, Dive Training’s Contributing Editor Barry Guimbellot and Wetpixel’s Eric Cheng have teamed up to create an importable keyword list designed for underwater photographers using Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture. The MarineLife Keyword List features keywords for over 12,000 species of marine wildlife, including common names, scientific names, and full taxonomy.

I’ve been using the list for some time, and it’s cut my keywording time down at least 90%. It is not meant to replace critter ID books; rather it is meant to work alongside identification guides. Once I’ve found the common name and scientific name of a critter I’m trying to keyword, I just search for it in the keyword list, and it pops up, complete with complete taxonomy. Then, I simply drag it over to my image, and keywording is done. Check out MarineLife Keyword List—you’ll know if it’s for you. 

In early April, Drew Wong wrote about a new BBC series called Nature’s Great Events. Some Wetpixel members saw the film team out in South Africa covering the annual sardine migration.

The BBC series, Nature’s Great Events, was shot over 2-3 years and covers the annual sardine migration in South Africa, the herring run and the Narwhals migration on the North American continent. These are just the ocean related episodes. In the entire series, there were some awesome underwater shots of Grizzly Bears, baitballs with predators and scenic icescapes. The aerial shots were from the Cineflex camera system which gives awesome perspective of natural behavior.

The series has finally been released for the American audience on DVD and Blu-Ray. For $21.99 for the DVD version and $23.99 for Blu-Ray, this is an easy purchase! To support Wetpixel, buy at Amazon using the following links: [Nature’s Most Amazing Events] [Nature’s Most Amazing Events [Blu-ray]]

Congratulations to Wetpixel member Espen Rekdal of Norway for winning the 12th Underwater Photography World Championship, organised by CMAS, which this year took place in Jeju Island, Korea between 31st May and 5th June. Second place went to former Champion Carlos Minguell of Spain and third place to Eok Soo Kim of South Korea. The winning images should be online soon.

The CMAS World Championship is held biannually in different locations around the world. Each country can send two photographers plus dedicated models and a team manager. This is the second time the competition has been entirely digital. Join the discussion of the World Championship on Wetpixel.

Dive Guide Thailand have recent launched a free to enter, monthly photo competition with a variety of Thailand based dive trips on offer as prizes. Each month you can enter up to five of your underwater photos taken any where in the world.

The competition is based on flickr and will be judged each month by Wetpixel’s Alex Mustard.

Professional underwater photographer Jason Bradley and Adobe’s Bill Stotzner will be conducting two digital workflow seminars for underwater photographers while diving the lush California Channel Islands on the Truth Aquatics Vision and Conception boats from August 23-27, 2009 and September 13-15, 2009.

Topics include image library management and optimization, color correction techniques, keywording, and usage tips for Photoshop and Lightroom. The class promises personalized instruction and a great chance to learn the art of refining your images while diving in the globally-renowned kelp forests. For more information, read all the seminar details…

With Wetpixel’s help (and many others’), the Underwater Channel has achieved its 10,000-signature goal in its petition against shark finning, which will be delivered to Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General. David Hasselfhoff and world-champion freediver Umberto Pelizzari both spoke out in support of the petition, which helped in the final push to reach the goal.

This is one of the few anti-finning petitions I’ve seen that has reached so many signatures. Hopefully, it will have some effect when it is delivered!

New underwater photographer Laurel Stewart reviews the Watershot WDS-450D, an underwater housing for the Canon Rebel XSi / 450D. This product is Watershot’s first underwater housing for SLR cameras, and is an attempt to provide a low-cost housing of a quality normally seen in higher-priced offerings. Rated to 200’, the WDS-450D is milled from a single piece of aluminum and offers full access to camera controls.

Eric Cheng offers additional notes about the housing and includes some photos taken with a sample rig. Continue reading for the full review…

On the heels of the Wetpixel oceanic white-tip shark expedition, Wetpixel editor and publisher Eric Cheng has returned from a trip to the Bahamas to photograph sharks and dolphins. During the trip, he photographed Emma, who is probably the world’s most photographed tiger shark. Pregnant and huge, she barreled in (gently) and headed straight for the guests, her bulbous belly dragging on the sand.

See Eric’s trip report and photos at his website.

Long-time Wetpixel member Bruce Yates writes about his new Aquatica underwater housing for the Canon 5D Mk II and compares Aquatica housings to Seacam housings (Bruce was a long-time Seacam user).

The Aquatica 5DII housing feels solid and sturdy, and every part meshes precisely. It is truly a professional-grade housing. It has a moisture alarm, and I like the way the camera mounts onto a tray, and the mounting tray slides solidly on two rods and latches in place, so there is no question of it being in place. I actually prefer this to the Seacam mount, which requires that you screw and unscrew a screw into the camera’s tripod hole each time… The only build aspect for which I still give the nod to Seacam is the “fuzz” that covers the inside of Seacam housings to absorb any bits of moisture that might find its way in...

See what Bruce thinks of his new housing!

Congratulations to grand prize winner Matthew Potenski and the many other winners of this year’s Nature’s Best Ocean Views Contest 2009!

Out of nearly 8,000 submitted photos, 26 images have been selected as winners. All winning images will be published in the next issue of Nature’s Best Photography magazine due out this summer. If you were not selected to as a winner in this year’s contest, we encourage you to continue with the great work!  We received so many excellent photos, which made our selection process very difficult!

Continue reading for the full list of winners.