posted by Sharon Rainis on 2009/06/03
“Aphrodite” – The Cyprus Experience Competition
Day 4 (June 4th)
This was the last day of the competition, in which all competition participants had to take their final shots. Some of the photographers, who were already happy with their Zenobia images and looked for a variety of underwater creatures, chose not to get on the boat and instead, headed towards for other dive sites around Larnaka. Others went for another intensive set of deep dives at the Zenobia wreck.
Since the Zenobia is one of the main categories in this competition, it was the major subject that most photographers focused on, including those who participated in the Cyprus Underwater Video Clip category. Edward Snijders from Netherlands, for example, prepared a video clip called “Woman of Cyprus”, referring of course to the Zenobia wreck. He looked for the origin of the name of the wreck, and found out that Zenobia was the queen of Palmyrene Empire who conquered Egypt in the 3rd century. His video presents the “Zenobia Queen” as a remarkable attraction, while everything was planned ahead in details, including independently mixing a soundtrack, recording a voice track and preparing a storyline for his shots. Edward shared with us that he first visited the Zenobia wreck on 1989 and that he was very thrilled to come back after 20 years. Back then, he says, there was significantly less life on the wreck, though he recalls that the lorries, which are now found towards the bottom of the wreck, were still hung up from the wreck on 1989. Producing a video clip that tells the story of the Zenobia is one great closure after 20 years!
Since today was the last opportunity to take photographs which can be submitted to the competition, the diving boat did not come back to the harbor at the afternoon as it usually did. Photographers who were willing to compromise on nothing less but perfection insisted to continue for two additional dives and tired but happy, we all came back to the shore in the evening.
Later that night, all the competition crew, including participants, judges, producers and representatives of Larnaka municipality, all went out for a fancy dinner in a fine restaurant that serves Cyprus national food. As drinks were on the house, most of us came back to the hotel in a condition that clearly states: NO DIVING TOMORROW!
Now all photographers are examining their photos and videos, making their final choices regarding the work that they will submit to the competition. Since these were three extremely intensive days of underwater photography, many memory cards will have to be processed in this long, meaningful and fateful night. Tomorrow, all photographers will finally submit their work, and those who did a good job and made the right decisions, will burn a CD that’s worth a few thousand Euros...
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