Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Volunteers for Bay Area Dive Show, Apr 17-18, 2009

Wetpixel has decided to have a booth at the Bay Area Dive Show, which takes place this Friday and Saturday, Apr 17-18, 2009 in San Jose, CA. We’re looking for 2-3 volunteers to represent both Wetpixel.com and Wetpixel Quarterly at our booth during the following shifts:

Friday, April 17, 2009: 4:30pm-8:00pm
Saturday, April 18, 2009: 9am-2pm / 1pm-5pm

In addition to our eternal gratitude, we are offering volunteers a free pass to the show, a free (empty) Wetpixel Quarterly Collector’s Box and a free issue of Wetpixel Quarterly Issue #5!

Wetpixel publisher and editor Eric Cheng will be one of the presenters at the Friday evening Film Festival. If you’re interested, please contact Michaela Brockstedt at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). We’ll see you there!

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Cor Bosman and Craig Jones post Ultimate Indonesia trip reports

Wetpixel moderators Cor Bosman and Craig Jones have posted trip reports from the recent Wetpixel Ultimate Indonesia expedition. Most of us logged over 130 dives over 40 days in Sorong, Misool, Halmahera, Seram, Ambon, Gunung Api, and Alor! We photographed Rhinopias, blue-ringed octopi, wunderpusses, mimic octopi, strange and rare shrimps and nudibranches, sea snakes, frogfishes (galore!), Bobbit worms, and more.

The second Ultimate Indo trip turned out to have the most Wetpixel moderators of any trip in history. Aboard the Seven Seas were Eric Cheng, Matt Segal, Cor Bosman, Julie Edwards, and Craig Jones. In addition, Drew Wong waylaid us on the streets of Sanur during our layover in Bali.

Check out Cor’s trip report (includes a GPS track) and Craig’s gallery. There are some wonderful images there. UPDATE: Frank has also posted a gallery.

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Jim Abernethy and crew free tangled lemon shark

Our good friend Jim Abernethy over at JASA has posted a video of him and his crew catching a lemon shark in the Bahamas and removing a rope that was wrapped tightly around its head. Jim writes:

The rope was buried roughly an inch under the lemon’s skin, which had obviously continued to grow over it. It must have been there for years. Located in front of the pectoral fins I could see that it was cutting into the gills as well… As I held her still, crew member Sean Payne cut the line with a knife. I immediately pushed her back in the water and watched her swim off knowing she now had many years ahead of her. The total time out of the water was one minute and three seconds.

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

Memorial service for Sascha Dambach in Indonesia

Steve Fish has posted links to videos celebrating the life of Kararu’s Sascha Dambach, who passed away in a motorcycle accident earlier this month.

The Memorial service for Sascha on Voyager at Tulamben April 11 was very well attended. After the service Sascha’s ashes were spread in the sea he loved so much… Loads of people had responded to Berkley White’s call for images of Sascha and we were able to put a multimedia presentation up at the party. I’ve posted it on YouTube for all to share… To see it in order, first watch the “Intro to Remembering Sascha”, then the main event: “Remembering Sascha”. We were also fortunate to get a video clip that was recorded last summer when Sascha attended a meditation course in Ubud and I have also uploaded it. It’s pure Sascha and very poignant considering the circumstances.

The videos are available online at the KararuDiveVoyages YouTube channel. There is also a discussion in the forums. Sasha will be missed dearly by his friends, and by the greater dive community.

Monday, April 13th, 2009

Rumor: Nikon D5000 SLR with articulating display announced tomorrow?

A Japanese retailer accidentally released details of the new Nikon D5000 digital SLR. Engadget writes, “the rumored DSLR with articulating 2.7-inch display is indeed real, and most likely set to be announced at tomorrow’s Austrian press event. Apart from the movable screen, it looks like the D5000 will be a pretty hot blend of the D60 and D90, complete with D-movie mode, 11-point AF system, and ISO 3200 sensitivity, all for a body-only price of ¥76,320 ($762).”

The articulating screen won’t be so useful for underwater photographers, but it’s likely that the D5000 will compete well against the Canon 500D / Digital Rebel T1i, Canon’s new 15 megapixel, entry-level DSLR that features H.264 HD video capture at 1080p/20fps and 720p/30fps ($799).

UPDATE: The Nikon D5000 has been announced and previewed at DPReview.

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

Patch applied to prevent PM spam

As most of you know, the software we use to run the forum has recently been under attack by a new way of spamming that involves humans (to get by the validation process) and automated bots. Other forums that run the same software have reported similar issues.

We have applied a software patch that does PM flood control on the PM screen, which means that members will not be able to send more than 1 personal message every 6 minutes. This will ensure that bots cannot PM spam anymore. In addition, we have disabled BBCODE in the PM system, so it will be impossible to send formatted text (or active links) in personal messages. Continue reading for full details…

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

Aphrodite Shoot Out, Cyprus, June 1-6, 2009

The first Aphrodite, the Cyprus Experience underwater photography shoot-out will take place between 1st & 6th June 2009 in Larnaka, Cyprus, Greece. In addition to more traditional shoot categories including two focused around the famous Zenobia wreck, photographers will be encouraged to enter the “Fashion & Nudity” category, named in honor of the late British underwater photographer and film-maker Mike Portelly.

Prizes include a 5000 Euro cash prize and 3 week trip for two to Papua New Guinea, worth $20000 USD.

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Diving Almanac 2009 Published

The 2009 edition of the Diving Almanac and Book of Records, edited by Jeffrey Gallant, is now published and available. The Diving Almanac & Book of Records is the only almanac on the diving world covering history, training, medicine, federations, equipment, marine biology, oceanography, yearbook, book of records - with 500 diving records, and who’s who of the international diving community, now featuring 600 personalities.

New features for the 2009 edition include the Dive Business Directory (The ‘Yellow Pages’ of Diving), a totally new Photo/Video chapter by Wetpixel’s Dr. Alex Mustard, a 100-page Year in Review (Sept. 2007 to Dec. 2008). All of the original contributors from the 2008 edition - including DAN (Divers Alert Network), TDI/SDI, the Historical Diving Society, and CMAS are also back.

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

BLUE Ocean Film Festival open for submissions and registration

The BLUE Ocean Film Festival will take place in Savannah, Georgia on 11-14 June 2009 and is now open for film submissions and early bird registration. The Festival aims to share films and photography that inspire people to protect our oceans and the life within.

BLUE offers a rare opportunity to network with not only fellow filmmakers & photographers but also leading broadcast commissioners and producers, veteran photography & filmmaker icons, esteemed marine researchers and ocean conservation leaders in an intimate and relaxed setting focused on honoring and promoting ocean filmmaking & photography skills and conservation messaging.

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

Celebrate the Sea 09 - Call for entries

Celebrate The Sea 2009 Festival is calling for entries to its prestigious photography and video competitions, which offer over $50000 in prizes. Entries must be received by 1st May 2009 for the Festival, now in its eight year, which will be held from 12-14 June, Manila Ocean Park, Manila, Philippines.

The competition will be judged by some of the top underwater image makers, including Peter Scoones, Phil Nyutten, David Doubilet, Daniel Mecier, Michael AW and Scott Tuason. Finalists will be displayed in special galleries and viewed by more than 16000 people; the festival offers unrivalled international exposure. The winners will also be published in Ocean Geographic, Action Asia, Scuba Diver Australasia and Asian Geographic magazines.

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