Epson Red Sea 2009

I hate to be right, but during the third and last day of the Eilat shoot-out, the only peaceful and restful creatures I’ve seen around the diving center were the mosquitoes at the pool. All photographers were extremely tensed and most of them have spent more than 8 hours underwater all together till the shoot-out has officially ended at midnight. The psychological effect of reaching the LAST DAY of the competition is so strong, that even those that had managed to take 13 wonderful pictures to choose their best 5 from, were suddenly feeling insecure and could swear that they just heard their competitor saying that he has taken 20 winning images by now and that he’s definitely up to more!

As the underwater photography discipline evolves, fine photographers, equipped with sophisticated systems, which would have definitely be considered as pro’s a few years ago, suddenly find themselves competing for the amateurs category. I miss those easy times in which not only the amateurs’ category consisted of compact digital camera owners, but even a few compact digital owners managed to take some professional category prizes. This year, the competition is so tough, that competitors in the amateurs’ category are equipped with no less than a Canon 5D or a Nikon D300 camera and housing, along with the best of the lenses and the finest strobes in the market. In short, a system that I certainly believe I dream of at least 3 times a night. For an example, I met Francis Demkiw from France, who is carrying a D300 camera with an Aquatica housing and two Ikelite strobes. Although equipped with such a nice looking system and 4 years of experience in underwater photography, Francis had no doubt that he will be competing for the amateurs’ category only, since it is his first time in Eilat and he has never won an underwater photography competition so far. Now, I don’t know about you, but if I was a compact digital system owner, meeting this guy underwater and finding out that he’s competing in the same category I am, I would feel guilty anytime I allow myself to have a 15 minutes break between dives. Hoping for the best and expecting the worse, I would like to remind you that in the 2007 competition, Boaz Samorai, equipped with an extremely old and basic Nikon compact camera, won TWO professional categories, also forgoing photographers using a D2X. So compact digitals, hang in there!

At noon time, judges of the competition gathered in order to judge the images submitted to the “Images of the World” category and were all found in the lobby of the hotel, where printed images of this category were exhibited, wearing a shirt that reads “GURY”. Due to the international mix of Italian, Russian and Finish representation in the Jury panel, I am sure that it could look as an innocent mistake. Well, that’s not exactly untrue. Last year it WAS an innocent mistake, which was only found out once the shirts were ready, but it was so funny and cute that the production fell in love with the concept and decided to print the “GURY” titles on shirts using an even larger font this year.
But yes, the winners of the Images of the World category were already decided upon. Since we will only find out who they are in the winning ceremony on Saturday evening, I choose to consider everyone as a suspect for now…

At late night, photographers already began to upload their images and choose those that are going to be submitted to the competition. Anyone you ask would clearly state that this is probably the most difficult part during the whole week. Following the advice of Roni Sofer, head of the jury panel, photographers made sure to consult with their colleagues prior to making their final choices. Anyone in the computer room, with or without a relation to photography, was kindly requested by at least 10 indecisive participants to share his opinion on all of their potential winning images. By the end of this long evening, I reviewed and shared my opinion regarding so many underwater images, that once I fell asleep, I dreamt of an Anemone fish (too common) fencing against a Red Grouper standing on a red coral (not enough contrast), when a sword fish appears exactly at the middle (doesn’t keep with the 9 thirds rule) and a Puffer Fish swims away (no eye contact). Tomorrow is the final day for photographers to submit their images, and the destiny of $80,000 prizes will be finally ruled.

• Epson Red Sea 2010 Live Daily Reports
• Fish of the Year - Epson Red Sea 2009
• Epson Red Sea 2008 Competition Webcast
• Epson Red Sea 2008 - World of Underwater Images