Stephen Frink: Jardines de la Reina

Wildscreen has announced that the 2018 Panda Awards will feature a category for “Photo Stories.” This is defined as a: Photo story of between six to ten images that have an aspect of the natural world as a central focus, with a narrative weaved between the images. The deadline for entries is 8 June 2018.
In a new in-flight campaign, Hawaiian Airlines is showing an 11-minute documentary about the adverse affects certain sunscreens have on coral reef health and well as distributing “reef safe” sunscreens to passengers of all North American Hawaii bound flights. Many sunscreens contain oxybenzone, or BP-3, a chemical known to harm juvenile corals in one drop to six and a half olympic sized swimming pools. The airline will also be selling full sized bottles of Raw Elements sunscreen at a discounted price through June.
Ikelite has announced their housing for the Panasonic G9 micro four-thirds mirrorless digital camera. Featuring the company’s new Dry Lock port system, the housing also has curved levers for shutter and AF/AE Lock. It will ship with a vacuum port and the options of both manual and TTL flash control. The flash bulkhead has been moved to the top of the housing to ease cable routing.
Wetpixel’s Drew Wong reports from the 2018 ADEX show, which was held at the Suntec Convention Center, Singapore from 6 to 8 April. The show attracted over 62,000 visitors and had a lively schedule of events and lectures. The 2018 Voice of the Oceans contest live judging was held, with a jury panel from the USA, Australia, France, the UK, Germany and the Philippines. Wetpixel and Sam’s Tours hosted their annual imaging party during the show too, please check out the images here
Skylum Software (previously Macfun) has released a significant update to their photo organizing and editing app, Luminar. The Jupiter update makes the app up to 12 times faster, improves RAW conversion and adds function parity between Windows and MC versions
In a study published today, scientists have shown that when anemones bleach, or expel their photosynthesizing algae, resident anemone fish suffer as well. The scientists were looking to prove if the fish suffer during times of stress for the host anemone, like when water temperature increases. Although anemones seem to rebound after bleaching events, the scientists proved the fish expend much more energy during bleaching events and produce significantly less offspring, although they could not prove why.
indShift Gear has announced 2 new shoulder bags designed outdoor (or underwater) photographers. The Exposure 13 can accommodate a 13” laptop, while the Exposure 15 can accommodate a 15” one. Both bags can be attached to a rolling bag’s handle and have numerous pockets for organizing camera and travel accessories.
Wetpixel and Sam’s Tours hosted a image makers party during the ADEX Show, Singapore. Over 50 people gathered at Vatos Urban Tacos to chat, socialize, network and have good time. The party drank the bar dry at the original venue, before heading on to another bar and keeping on going until 3am. Fortunately for those of us unable to attend, Wetpixel’s Drew Wong was on hand to document the action.