Epson Red Sea 2010 Live Daily Reports

The second day of the Eilat Shoot-Out competition began with lots of excitement. It turns out that at the south shores of Eilat, pretty much at the middle of the marine park and at a depth of only 6 meters, a group of Lion Fish has been spotted during what seemed to be a late breakfast. Now, on any regular day, a Lion Fish with its mouth wide open is a wonderful subject for an award winning image. The fact that the Lion Fish has been crowned as the “Fish of the Year” of the Epson Red Sea 2010 and serves as the only subject for photographers participating in this category, makes this event an even more attractive, desirable and exciting one. And so, those feeding Lion Fish have become the talk of the morning. Well, you’ve gotta admit, it’s better than politics!

Today, the tension was a little bit higher than yesterday. The thing is that if at the first day of your shoot-out something goes wrong, and you don’t end up with any images which you believe are worthwhile to be submitted to the competition, you still have most of the time left for improving yourself. However, the expectations grow higher on the second day, as you know you’ve got to start delivering. For this reason, almost all photographers I spoke with today were busy with calculating the number of potentially-award-winning images they seem to have captured up until now. Of course the number quoted is always followed by a clear, honest and modest statement regarding the fact that they’re only here for the sake of the experience. It became almost fashionable to refer to a $25,000 prize as an “added value”…

But there’s another reason for this high tension. You see, during the past 4 years, there were only 2 photographers collecting the largest prize of the competition for the Eilat Shoot-Out 5 Best Images category, a $10,000 check plus a trip for two to Papua New Guinea including airfare. By now, each of them has already won this category twice, and therefore, according to competition rules, they cannot participate in this category any longer. This, of course, clears off the spot for someone else to win this prize, and the only (minor) question remaining is- who will that new photographer be?

In most cases, I would have had a guess, but this time, I must admit – I have no clue. It’s just that the standards have become so high. So far, I’ve seen so many extraordinarily creative, unique and outstanding images created by the participants, that I can only state one thing for sure. I don’t envy the judges!

And back to pretty naked ladies. One of the photographers I’ve accompanied today was Marc Hillesheim, who arrived from Germany to participate in the Underwater Fashion & Nudity category. Marc has much experience in this field, but producing 5 amazing images within 3 days and without using any editing programs is a challenge even for the most professional and equipped photographer. Marc’s beautiful model is Ellie Biel from Israel, who enters the water a few times a day, wearing the original dresses Marc’s friend, a fashion designer, has especially made for this event. A short video clip featuring their work today-


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< In the afternoon, the Happy Hour made everyone, well, very happy, and it was followed by the official opening of the competition at the Underwater Observatory Marine Park, where the Mayor of Eilat, Mr. Meir Yitzhak-Halevi, greeted all the photographers and wished them good luck. Judging by the amount of food and alcohol consumed during this event, I can only assume the number of photographers who actually made it for a night dive tonight was especially low. But then again, tomorrow is the last day of the shoot-out, so I wouldn’t bet my life on it…

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