Wetpixel/Under The Jungle Cenote Workshop 2021
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Early monday morning ten sperm whales were spotted beached along shore in the Aceh Province of Indonesia. Approximately 50 volunteers organized through conservation groups entered the water and worked through the night to attempt to rescue the whales. While six of the sperm whales were rescued, four of the whales unfortunately died. Beachings are not very common in Indonesia, however, a group of 29 pilot whales stranded in 2016 close to Jakarta.
A blue hole that is extremely hard to get to, nestled off Daydream Island of the great Barrier Reef, has finally been explored by scientists. The blue hole was previously described by geologists, but due to its location, had never been explored. Although the researchers were only able to reach 65 feet deep, they were able to surmise that the blue hole may even be older than the famed Belize blue hole. Scientist Johnny Gaskell led the expedition.
Sea&Sea has announced their MDX housing for the Nikon D850. Shown at the DEMA show, the housing has been precision machined, offering an 11% weight saving over the MDX-D810 housing. Both main and sub command dials are located on the housing’s right hand side with lever access to ISO and Record controls.
The flagship underwater imaging contests, the Underwater Competition Series, organized by founders DivePhotoGuide and Wetpixel, are now open for entries. Comprising the Our World Underwater Competition and the DEEP Indonesia Competition, there are over $100,000 worth of prizes up for grabs once again. The deadline for entries to Our World Underwater is 27 January, and for DEEP Indonesia, 10 February.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) contest for 2018 is now accepting entries. WPY 54 is offering 15 categories, including Under Water. The deadline for entries is 14 December 2017.
The annual DEMA show wrapped up this past weekend in Orlando, Florida after several days. Famed oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle and Drew Richardson, CEO of PADI, held a press event at the show to talk about the importance of divers to conserve the oceans they know and love. Mission Blue and PADI formed a partnership earlier this year to encourage divers to be a force for change.
Panasonic has announced their compact system G9 mirrorless camera. It features a 20.3 MP 4/3 sensor and a native ISO range of 200-25,600. Autofocus is via Panasonics Advanced DFD system that has 225 focus point and it has 5 axis image stabilzation. 4K 50/60p is available for 10 minutes recording time at full sensor width with no pixel binning. Lower frame rates and resolutions can be captured for 30 minutes.
TRT-Electronics has announced their o-TURTLE TTL optical flash trigger for the Olympus mirrorless cameras. It is hot shoe mounted with a separate LED board for fiber optic triggering. It also allows for front or rear curtain flash sync.