SanDisk RedSea Underwater Photo Competition 2006 Live Webcast

A day without diving – In the morning the room for submitting your best five images was crowded with participants. As no further images were allowed to be taken, many photographers used this gathering for getting knowledgeable feedback on their own images, before the jury commenced with their work.

Next to the Live-Competition that was held in Eilat, the long awaited "Images of World" category was exhibited today. The level of the images that were sent in was amazingly high. As the rules did not forbid submitting images that had been used in other contests, we saw some familiar shots. Among the prestigious photos we also found the frog that won the Antibes Festival two years ago. Some German images that had appeared the recently introduced calendar of "unterwasser" magazine were also presented. Overall we counted four photos of Pygmy-Seahorses, which will probably cannibalize each other (as in every underwater photo competition).

"Famous" Amos Nachoum presented his lecture entitled "Creating Images, instead just of Taking them" and showed impressive shots from his already fifteen years duration BigAnimals.com Project. He encouraged all photographers to compete with their own images and think about composition and the necessary tools, instead of just pressing the shutter. His incredible portfolio took care of the necessary motivation to try harder (at least with us).

Besides classic views and artful imaging it was up to Lars and me to spend some words on then new technology and possibilities of digital imaging. After demonstrating the power of white balance, filters and spending some words on the new PADI course/book we quickly arrived at more specific questions about colour management and levelling asked by the audience.

The day was closing with another Slideshow by Amos Nachoum and the winning videos of the last Antibes Festival. Organizer Daniel Marcier personally brought these with him to Eilat. We especially liked the Crazy Underwater Orchestra and a documentary film about Reef Sharks in French-Polynesia. The film featured footage of copulating sharks and also the multiple Antibes Winner, Monsieurs Laurent Ballesta.

[more Photos]

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