Splash into the world of underwater digital photography at the fourth annual underwater Digital Shootout in Bonaire, which is being held July 23-30, 2005!

With daily dives and seminars with some of the world's most knowledgeable underwater photographers, you'll be sure to head home with your heads stuffed with new photographic techniques, for both above and below water. We are also hosting a photo contest with over $10,000 in prizes!

July 23-24, 2005

The shootout staff arrived a few days ago; we've been spending our time familiarizing ourselves with the local diving, and setting up evening presentation area and the classroom (we have a projector, screen, tables and chairs for 50, printing stations, and photos on the walls). Bonaire is the most diver-friendly place I've ever been to, with dozens of marked shore dives easily accessible by car or boat (and the popular resorts all seem to have very nice house reefs). If you don't know where Bonaire is, go here and start zooming out until you recognize something. :)

By now, nearly all of the Digital Shootout 2005 participants have arrived and taken their first couple of dives into Calabas Reef, Divi Flamingo's healthy house reef. Squadrons of reef squid hover above the bright, white sand, and not far from the pier is a jawfish with a huge brood of eggs in its mouth (its location was described by Rogier, a local here in Bonaire). There seem to be cleaning stations everywhere, and a continuous stream of fish wiggle by, stopping momentarily for a quick check-up.

In the afternoon, Berkley White gave engrossing seminars on focus and basic Photoshop techniques, which were followed by open office hours, where all of us staff members were available to answer individual questions. In the evening, we had the second of our nightly slide shows. Last night, we featured an "inspirational" slideshow of photos taken by Dan, Berkley, Jim, and me. Tonight's show featured images taken by participants, which we (the judges) critiqued for the entire group. The nightly slideshows are extremely useful; not only do they show people what other folks are shooting, but they have always demonstrated obvious improvements in image quality over the course of the week.

Underwater Photos (by Eric Cheng unless otherwise noted)

Jawfish with eggs (photo: Jim Watt)

Lizardfish portrait (photo: Jim Watt)

Eel portrait

A jawfish with a brood of eggs in its mouth

Frogfish (photo: Jim Watt)

Damselfish eggs -- early stage

Lizardfish

A jawfish spits sand out of its mouth

Grunts hang out

Coral detail

Cute little red triplefin

Reef squid detail

French Angelfish portrait

A tiny blenny hides in a brain coral

Topside Photos (by Eric Cheng unless otherwise noted)

Eric Cheng and Jim Watt

Cheers! (Jim Watt and Greg Bang)

No trip is complete without little kids loading beer into your rental car.

Berkley doesn't feel right without his stuffed animals

Berk and Dan hang out with a Subal ND2 housing

Jim Watt at breakfast

Jason and Dan ready the fleet of Tetra 5050 loaner housings

Berkley White with a six-pack of beer

Dan, Jason, Berk, and Jim set up Quicktime

Dan goes over a Tetra system

Dan goes over a Tetra system

Veterans Greg Bang and Erik Moon already know how to set up their systems

Gear setup

Greg Roll with his Subal ND70

Dan helps out with a Light & Motion Mako housing

Jason shows me his butt

Dan, at the registration booth in the Flamingo's Nest

The registration booth in the Flamingo's Nest

Ready for Berkley's talk and our staff slideshow

Dan and Jason at the registration table

July 25, 2005

Man -- we have some good shooters here! We've all had a couple of days to get our camera gear dialed in, and the improvement in image quality from yesterday is dramatic.

In the morning, we split up into three dive boats and dove various reefs near the resort. Our group of divers were fortunate enough to encounter a cute, green frogfish, and a seahorse or two. And yesterday, Jim Watt found a bright yellow frogfish in about 8 feet of water right in front of the Chibi Chibi, Divi Flamingo's over-water restaurant.

Both Erik Moon and Jim jumped in at our house reef only to discover that our brooding jawfish had released all of her eggs! However, another one of the three looks to be pregnant, so we may have another set of eggs visible by the end of our shootout.

In the afternoon seminars, Berkley White gave an in-depth talk about exposure, followed by an inspiration talk by Jim Watt about composition. During the seminars, I sat at the printing station and cranked out over thirty prints, which we then plastered all over a wall. Tomorrow, I hope to get participants to print out their own images, but the days have been so packed with events that it's more likely that I'll be on print duty for the rest of the week. :)

Underwater Photos by Shootout Participants

Photo: Bang, Greg

Photo: Bang, Greg

Photo: Firestein, G

Photo: Platz, Jim

Photo: Platz, Jim

Photo: Platz, Jim

Photo: Chen, Will

Photo: Moon, Erik

Photo: Bang, Greg

Photo: Sutherland, K

Photo: Chase, Chip

Photo: Verhulst, V

Photo: Verhulst, V

Photo: Yakobov, E

Photo: Chase, Chip

Photo: Firestein, G

Photo: Yakobov, E

Photo: Singer, T

Underwater Photos by Eric Cheng

A tiny goby hangs out on a sponge

A goby rests on a coral

A tiny, tiny goby hangs out on a coral

Scorpionfish detail

A cowfish of some sort

Two cleaner wrasse leap off of their resting place to pick parasites off of these fish

Coral detail

Coral detail

Coral detail

A small, green frogfish waves its lure around

Little fish take refuge in sponges

Ugly Bonairian seahorse head

A small goby on its coral

A Secretary Blenny (Acanthemblemaria maria) hangs out in its hole

July 26, 2005

This year's participants are diving fiends. Each morning on the way to the dive pier, we've been seeing participants coming out of the water after early-morning dives, and after each evening's slide show, a stalwart few jump right back in for late-night dives. As I wrote earlier, Bonaire is extremely dive-friendly, and divers can just grab tanks and jump in at any time.

I boarded the Alice H (a boat) today, and we dropped in for a dive at Jerry's Reef on Klein Bonaire, the small island just off of Bonaire's west coat. After a torrential downpour during our surface interval, we did our second dive at a site called Small Wall, where some of us were lucky enough to have a prolonged encounter with mating squid in just 15 feet of water. A larger, female squid accepted sperm sacks from two males, and den deposited fertilized eggs in a hole underneath a coral head. Two males competed for her attention, flashing aggressive spotted patterns and chasing each other around. Coolest of all was seeing one male display competition colors on one half of his body while showing mating colors on the other. This copulation/egg-laying procedure continued repeatedly for over an hour while various divers watched, fascinated. Finally, after 72 minutes in the water, an impatient dive master reeled us in by banging on the boat. It's easy to see why squid die after mating -- it looked like a lot of work!

The afternoon seminars included one by Berkley White on advanced Photoshop techniques, which covered layer masks, selective color, backscatter removal via the healing brush, cropping techniques, and more. After Berk's seminar, I took over and gave an in-depth seminar on printing images. After my talk, Jim Watt said, "Eric, you made me never want to print again," which I'm sure was just his circuitous way of telling me that he enjoyed my talk immensly. :)

The problem with lecturing about printing is that there is no middle ground between printing "the easy way" and the right way, which requires an understanding of sharpening, color profiles, monitor/printer calibration, and print-dialog/ driver settings. These are advanced topics that -- unfortunately -- only really help if one already has a bit of background in the subject. Despite the difficulty of the subject matter, many people seemed to learn a lot -- despite my cramming so much information into such a short period of time.

The evening slideshow again showed amazing improvement in image quality over previous shows. We are all very impressed at how good the images are!

Topside Photos

The Sunshine leaves the dock

Eric Cheng tries out the Aqualung Mistral double-hose regulator (photo: Dan Baldocchi)

Berkley White speaks to a classroom full of participants

Jim Watt gives a seminar on composition

Jim Watt gives a seminar on composition

The photo wall begins!

Berkley White gives a seminar on advanced Photoshop techniques

The Sunshine, one of our dive boats (photo: Jason Bradley)

A torrential downpour hits during our surface interval (photo: Dan Baldocchi)

A torrential downpour hits during our surface interval (photo: Dan Baldocchi)

Underwater Photos by Shootout Participants

Photo: Tim Barhorst

Photo: John Byrnes

Photo: Pauline Muscat

Photo: Pauline Muscat

Photo: Greg Bang

Photo: Greg Bang

Photo: Will Chen

Photo: Will Chen

Photo: Will Chen

Photo: Will Chen

Photo: Alice Riley

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Photo: John Verhulst

Photo: Jakobov-Singer

Photo: Jakobov-Singer

Photo: Jakobov-Singer

Photo: Chip Chase

Photo: Chip Chase

Photo: Chip Chase

Photo: Chip Chase

Photo: Pauline Muscat

Photo: Jim Platz

Photo: Jim Platz

Underwater Photos by Eric Cheng

Coral texture detail

A little shrimp hides in its host anemone

Coral texture detail

Tube sponges say hi!

A flounder, in the sand

A squid places fertilized eggs deep under a coral head

A squid places fertilized eggs deep under a coral head

After placing eggs under a coral head, she jets away quickly.

Squid sex: looking for the hole

Squid sex: sperm sac implantation

Squid sex: looking for the hole

Squid sex: looking for the hole

Squid sex: sperm sac implantation

Squid sex: male releases and jets away

Female squid ejects something after sperm sac implantation from male. Is it the sperm sac?

July 27, 2005

Well, our call for Skypers yesterday was a success! Jim Watt sat at his computer from 9:30-10pm, and received two calls (the computer spaces were occupied from 9:15-9:30). Okie, a former Shootout participant, called to give us an update on his life, and someone else called in search of an Equinox housing. I wasn't able to be there because we were finishing up photo critiques in the Flamingo's Nest.

The Alice H dove the Hilma Hooker wreck this morning, in absolutely beautiful, clear weather. In her day, the Hilma Hooker was an old cargo boat that turned out to be used for drug-smuggling. When she started taking on water, she refused help and eventually ended up on her starboard side in just over 100' of water. It was really refreshing to take a wide-angle rig into the water; nearly everyone on our boat had switched to wide-angle setups to shoot the wreck. Most of the images we've seen so far have been of macro subjects, but since wide-angle is harder, the best prizes in the photo contest invariably end up being awarded to wide-angle winners.

Seminars today included a talk on slideshow creation and web galleries, followed by the "3-Way Smackdown," in which Berkley, Jim and I showcased tips for speeding up workflow and image processing.

The photos coming in are now REALLY good. We're all very impressed.

Topside Photos
No one is submitting topside photos, which is why the photos are mostly of staff...

Berkley flexes his huge bicep as he prepares to down a beer.

Amstel Bright, at Mai Mai restaurant, Bonaire

Berkley White in the red evening sun

These days, we like to ask Dan, "hey -- what time is it?"

Eric Cheng, all angled and arty

A giddy Berkley

Lane goes in for a dive

Berkley White, ready to tear it up.

Lane and Berkley: Friends 4Ever!

Eric Cheng and Jim Watt, looking serious

Underwater Photos by Shootout Participants

Photo: Jungjohann

Photo: M Carey

Photo: Jungjohann

Photo: Jungjohann

Photo: John Byrnes

Photo: John Byrnes

Photo: Will Chen

Photo: Will Chen

Photo: Gordon Firestein

Photo: Erik Moon

Photo: Pauline Muscat

Photo: Pauline Muscat

Photo: Alice Riley

Photo: Alice Riley

Photo: Greg Roll

Photo: Greg Roll

Photo: Greg Roll

Photo: Singer-Yakobov

Photo: Singer-Yakobov

Photo: Greg Bang

Photo: Greg Bang

Photo: J Carretta

Photo: Chip Chase

Underwater Photos by Eric Cheng

Bonaire Reefscape

Dan demonstrates the near-neutral bouyancy of his Titan D100 housing

The stern of the Hilma Hooker wreck

Tarpin and divers on the Hilma Hooker wreck

Dan Baldocchi on the Hilma Hooker wreck

Dan floats next to the Hilma Hooker

The propeller of the Hilma Hooker

Dan and the propeller of the Hilma Hooker

Erik Moon and his Subal/Canon 1Ds Mk II

Dan Baldocchi on the Hilma Hooker

Erik Moon and his Subal/Canon 1Ds Mk II

July 28-29, 2005

Digital Shootout 2006 Group Photo @ Divi Resort

Photo processing time in the classroom (photo: Eric Cheng)

Isabel works on her photos (photo: Eric Cheng)

Photo processing time in the classroom (photo: Eric Cheng)

Our classroom above the dive shop (photo: Eric Cheng)

Greg Roll and Esther Singer (photo: Eric Cheng)

Jim Watt watches as Pauline Muscat processes photos (photo: Eric Cheng)

Berkley gives me the evil eye (photo: Eric Cheng)

Dan Baldocchi sits with Will and Robin (photo: Eric Cheng)

Watt is excited! (photo: Eric Cheng)

Posing for the group shot

Posing for the group shot

The awards ceremony in the Flamingo's Nest

Jason Bradley and Jim Watt

Berkley White prepares for the awards ceremony

The awards ceremony audience

Best of Show: Jim Platz

Jason takes a stance while photographing Dan and Berkley

Berkley White wrapped in towel (photo: Eric Cheng)

Crazy Digital Shootout participants (photo: Will Chen)

Divi Resort at night (photo: Mark Melnick)

Divi Resort iguana (photo: Jim Watt)

Digital Shootout Photo Contest

Join us for the Digital Shootout 2006 in Palau, April 1-9, 2006! If you're interested, please contact Dan Baldocchi via e-mail at , or by phone at 773-308-5673.

On Friday, July 29th, Jim Watt, Berkley White, Dan Baldocchi and I spent over nine hours in the classroom today judging contest entries and preparing the final presentation slideshows. There were so many good entries that it was extremely difficult to select winners!

Berkley loves to say at these events, "All of you are winners; some are just more prize-challenged than others are."

The Digital Shootout photo contest works in an interesting way: participants can win place more than once, but can only go home with one prize. If a prior winner places again, he or she has a choice: keep the old prize or accept the new one. The discarded prizes are then auctioned off at the end of the ceremony, which can lead to some interesting twists -- and, a rowdy crowd. :)

During the course of the evening, there were over $10,000 in prizes awarded. Prizes were donated by Kararu Liveaboards, Backscatter, Sea & Sea/TUSA, Oceanic, Light & Motion, Optiquatics, Stahlsac, Ultralight Control Systems, Aqualung, Aeris, Reefnet, SeaVision, Eric Cheng, and James Watt.

Congratulations to you all! And now, on to the winning entries...

Best of Show

Best of Show: Jim Platz

Category: Traditional Compact Camera

Traditional Compact - 1st Place: Ken Sutherland	Traditional Compact - 2nd Place: David Mizrahi	Traditional Compact - 3rd Place: David Mizrahi
	Traditional Compact - Honorable Mention: Alice Riley	Traditional Compact - Honorable Mention: Val Jungjohann

Category: Traditional Macro

Traditional Macro - 1st Place: Greg Bang	Traditional Macro - 2nd Place: Mike Carey	Traditional Macro - 3rd Place: John Byrnes
	Traditional Macro - Honorable Mention: Greg Bang	Traditional Macro - Honorable Mention: Will Chen

Category: Unrestricted Macro

Unrestricted Macro - 1st Place: Pauline Muscat	Unrestricted Macro - 2nd Place: Greg Bang	Unrestricted Macro - 3rd Place: Tovia/Yakobov
Unrestricted Macro - Honorable Mention: Tovia/Yakobov	Unrestricted Macro - Honorable Mention: Ryan Zent	Unrestricted Macro - Honorable Mention: Mark Melnick

Category: Traditional Wide Angle

Traditional Wide Angle - 1st Place: Mark Melnick	Traditional Wide Angle - 2nd Place: Jim Platz	Traditional Wide Angle - 3rd Place: John Verhulst
	Traditional Wide Angle - Honorable Mention: Jeff Kelly	Traditional Wide Angle - Honorable Mention: Erik Moon

Category: Unrestricted Wide Angle

Unrestricted Wide Angle - 1st Place: Jim Platz	Unrestricted Wide Angle - 2nd Place: Victor Cattan	Unrestricted Wide Angle - 3rd Place: Will Chen
	Unrestricted Wide Angle - Honorable Mention: Pauline Muscat	Unrestricted Wide Angle - Honorable Mention: Greg Bang