Wetpixel Senior Moderator Mike Veitch has provided some notes on diving and photographing in an environmentally responsible way. This article is a part of a re-write of a series of articles that was originally published in Mike’s “In Focus” column that was published in Scuba Diver Australasia magazine from 2006-2009. It has been re formatted and has new images bringing it up to date for Wetpixel. Mike concludes that:

“By practicing considerate and safe photography you can lessen your impact and footprint on the coral reef. If everyone does their part, by following the guidelines above, we will all benefit in the long run with a healthy and happy underwater world.”

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The 2012-2013 Ocean Views contest is calling for entries. The contest, hosted this year by Alert Diver, Nature’s Best Photography and Wetpixel, is offering photographers the chance to win a Grand Prize of two live-aboard dive holidays, one on the Thailand Aggressor, and the other on the Carib Dancer. In addition, there are many other significant prizes for those in the competition’s placings, including great dive holidays and shiny scuba gear. All the winning images will also be published in upcoming editions of both Nature’s Best Photography and Alert Diver magazines as well as on Wetpixel. The contest is open at all, with no specific categories, but with prizes for the top 12 placings and 5 honorable mentions. Entries may be of life below, above or around the ocean’s surface and for a one-off $25 US entry fee, you can submit up to 20 images.

The deadline for entries has been changed to 18 December 2012, and full rules and procedures are listed on the Nature’s Best Photography website.

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Subsurface Media’s Brian Dombrowski has posted his 360° field of view video of a dive site in Dry Tortugas. It was shot using a custom designed housing linking 4 GoPro HD2, linked with custom electronics. The files are then joined by 5 different software processes, including one that is written by Brian himself.

The housing can go pass 400ft deep.  It does synchronized start and stop of the cameras.  It took over 6 hours to process the 2.30 minute video!  It certainly looks better than the BBC one that was done last year for the Oceans series.  Watch this special video on his website for a fully interactive video experience.

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Engineers from Stanford and the Monterey Bay Aquarium have joined forces to design an underwater vehicle that can steer and control its depth autonomously. The torpedo shaped vehicle uses a terrain-relative navigation (TRN) system that allows it to know its location by matching its altitude (above the ocean floor) to an existing terrain map. In addition, the autonomous craft applies algorithms to steer itself around obstructions. Applications for the new technology would include following moving objects in the open ocean while collecting pictures, video and data. The new vehicles are expected to be mission-ready next year.

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The Olympus OM-D E-M5 has become an important EVIL camera for underwater use. This can be illustrated by a fantastic thread about the camera in the Wetpixel forum that has attracted 23,464 views and 241 entries, all freely sharing information about it. In this article, Wetpixel Associate Editor Alex Mustard, together with Wetpixel member Coroander presents a synopsis of the current information in the thread, especially in how in relates to settings choices. Their goal is to assist fellow OM-D shooters to get the best from their cameras underwater.

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