posted by Sharon Rainis on 11/10/2009

Epson Red Sea 2009

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Winning Ceremony | Winner & Nominee images

Day 1 (November 9th)

The Epson Red Sea 2009 competition has officially started today in Eilat, Israel. Underwater photographers from all over the world already arrived and registered to the competition and additional participants are expected to arrive tomorrow as well. Immediately after registering, some of the participants rushed to assembly their underwater photo systems and entered the water, even though images submitted to the competition could only be taken starting from midnight. Those who are diving in the Red Sea or Eilat for the first time, began their exploration of the area, while those who are already familiar with the dive sites around, simply conducted a thorough underwater tour in order to check if there are any “new arrivals”. After all, finding out, a day before the competition, that there’s a rare type of frogfish or a cute looking ghost pipe fish playing around the reef, is a valuable piece of information. In fact, it might be as valuable as $25,000, in case it eventually grants it discovered with the first prize!

Obviously one of the first concerns of competition participants, especially those arriving from far away, is the integrity of their equipment. Therefore, most photographers, even if they didn’t plan to go diving, established their systems today and tested them in shallow water. In most cases, this testing was successful and ended up with a sense of relief, but for one of the competitors, who has already flooded his camera housing, it seems as if the competition ended even before it began. I admit that the thought of getting him a disposable camera instead DID cross my mind, but something made me give up eventually. Perhaps a strong urge to stay alive.

I met Tobias Friedrich from Germany today, who has won the second prize of the amateurs’ category on the “Aphrodite” competition in Cyprus this last June. Tobias, who I thought submitted exceptionally beautiful images in the last competition, decided to go for the amateurs’ category again, despite the fact he has recently upgraded his system to what is considered to be a professional one by all means (Canon 5D with a UK Germany housing). When I asked regarding this surprising decision, he explained that he is not yet confident enough in order to participate in professional categories, and furthermore, since there are more than 35 photographers participating in the amateurs’ category this year, he would be more than satisfied to even be chosen as a nominee. Whether it’s a matter of lowering expectations, a modest and mature attitude or a realistic approach, hoping for the best and expecting the worse is surely a very useful approach to adapt this week!

In the evening, all participants were invited to an official opening ceremony, in which competition rules, regulations and judgment guidelines were introduced in details. The Epson Red Sea production team, who felt that environmental conservation concerns should be dealt with even more seriously than before, invited the local chief ranger of the Nature Reservation authority, who decisively introduced a list of regulations that all divers and photographers are required to follow underwater during the competition, such as sitting only on sandy bottoms and refraining from any contact with corals or living creatures. However, it was also made clear that there is no intention to (and I’m quoting here) “put sticks in photographers’ wheels”, which is a (probably intuitive) free translation of a nice phrase in Hebrew, meaning that nobody is looking to disqualify photographers or interrupt them due to insignificant matters.

Tomorrow the competition officially begins, and since I promised (long ago and for no visible reason) one of the videographers participating in the competition to model for him in his video clip, I will probably find myself spending quite a respectful time underwater as well, wearing nothing that looks, or even worse- feels, like a wetsuit. As someone who has previously made her models cope with temperatures much lower than these, I should probably feel obligated to meet this challenge, but somehow I suddenly feel like I’m developing a severe cold and experiencing some weakness… And then again, with such prizes are hanging in the balance, suddenly everything seems reasonable and all efforts become worthwhile.

...Or maybe I should have gotten him a disposable camera after all?