Epson Red Sea 2010 Live Daily Reports

Since decisions were especially difficult for the judges this year, on Saturday afternoon, the day in which the winning ceremony takes place, the jury panel was still struggling behind closed doors. I personally like it when the judges are having a hard time to make a call. It somehow gives me the feeling that the level of images submitted is especially high and that second place in any category could end up as the first one on another year with different competitors. Inspiring and frustrating at the same time, isn’t it…

At the winning ceremony, there were more visitors than I can ever recall. As a big fan of the Fashion & Nudity category, I couldn’t stop but thinking that this probably has to do with the newly introduced and sexy category, drawing lots of attention, media partners and crowd.

We opened the ceremony introducing Epson Red Sea Live Underwater Broadcasts carried out last September at the Photokina Fair, which also sponsored one of the prizes in the competition. We then moved on to the awards, starting with Images of the World and proceeding with Eilat Shoot-Out.

The Images of the World section featured a new Sharks category, which Nicolas Barraque from France won with a series of 3 stunning images, each featuring a different shark species. Other winners in the section of Images of the World were from Italy, Sweden, Spain, Germany and USA. The Eilat Shoot-Out section introduced a new Fashion & Nudity category, which had a significant presence during the week (after all, no one ignores a woman wearing nothing but scuba gear, lipstick and high heels). Although the category was a new one, photographers participating in it were no novices and the images submitted were absolutely breathtaking. Eventually, Marc Hillesheim from Germany won the category with a series of 5 images you simply cannot take your eyes off (said the straight writer).

However, prior to announcing the winner of the category, Alberto Muro Pelliconi, one of the judges, surprised everyone as he came up on stage and announced a prize for the winning model. Earlier that day, when reviewing the images submitted to this category, Alberto felt deeply impressed with the work of the models and decided that the best one is entitled for a prize as well, regardless of whether the photographer she worked with had won the first prize. He chose Ellie Biel from Israel as the winner, who modeled for Marc Hillesheim, and granted her with a beautiful piece of jewelry he has created himself. Hopefully spending 20 hours naked underwater, freezing and shivering, breathless and with no ability of seeing what’s going on around, finally turned out worthwhile…

Another surprise awaited Tobias Friedrich from Germany, who found himself called up on stage 3 times during that evening, thereby breaking the record of Epson Red Sea competitions! Tobi managed to win 3 categories this year: Best Wrecks of the World, Fish of the Year and the Mayor’s Prize. All together, he collected $7,000 that evening, which is not bad for someone who competed in the Amateur’s category only a year ago (go Tobi!!). Earlier that day, Tobi promised that if he ends up winning any of the prizes, he will be jumping to the pool with his clothes on as soon as the winning ceremony concludes. Now that I can’t seem to recall anything like that happening, I have a clear vision of how the opening ceremony of the Epson Red Sea 2011 will look like…

The largest prize for the Eilat Shoot-Out 5 Best Images was awarded to Mark Fuller from Israel, who introduced a very unique, creative and diverse portfolio. Mark has won a $10,000 check in addition to a three-week diving trip in Papua New Guinea for two, including airfare.

And now to the biggest and most shocking surprise of them all! Starting from next year, Epson Red Sea is opening the borders, allowing underwater photographers to participate in the Shoot-Out category anywhere in Jordan, Israel or Egypt’s Red Sea. This means that you can choose whether you would like to stay in Eilat during the shoot-out, or to dive from Jordan’s or Egypt’s red sea coasts. Furthermore, you can also choose to hop between the countries during the shoot-out. Underwater photographers staying in Jordan or Egypt during the shoot-out will be able to submit their images at the border. Either way, all participants will be taking their shoot-out competition images during the same days and submitting them at the same final date and time.

So on November 2011, the whole Red Sea is going to be one large underwater photography studio for Epson Red Sea participants. Although you can’t hear them, know that drums and violins are playing in the background as you read this!

For Epson Red Sea 2010 nominees and winners, please Click Here (link soon available).

And last, I would like to personally thank all of Epson Red Sea participants for such an incredibly fun, interesting and inspiring week. As I’ve embedded in the “Make Of” video (see Day 5), YOU all are Epson Red Sea.

Corny, yet so true.

• 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