On 2005 I’ve participated in the first competition, back then rather small with about 70 photographers, and did much better then expected.
2006 was not very successful on my side, and while planning to attend the 2007 event, I eventually had to call it off due to work.

For the 2008 Epson red sea underwater photography competition I have arrived as ready as can be- armed with my old and dependable Olympus C-8080 and a matching PT-023 underwater case, as well as a good friend as my dive buddy.
This is still a challenge which is in principle over my skills, as I registered for the professional category facing around 150 underwater photographer from Israel and all over the world, some definitely top level and highly experienced . From past lessons though, not only that the results can sometimes be surprising- this is simply the best underwater photography school you can ever find, and I still have much to learn.

Starting November 11th (tomorrow), I will keep daily updates with some impressions from the events- results will be published on Saturday evening, November 15th.

Check out The wide lens for daily updated and get more details at the official competition website.

Day 1 summary is here.

Modern SCUBA diving technology has become incredibly easy, reliable and accessible- pushing larger amounts of tourists into getting SCUBA diving training and making premium diving locations their next holiday spot. As more people go diving, more stress is being applied on the natural reefs, with side effects such as sea-side building, sewage and garbage littering the oceans, and direct physical contact between divers and the natural underwater environment.

In order to relive stress from the natural reef, diving resorts today need to create artificial attractions, which will benefit with the environment by weighing down the amount of visitors per each spot, and at the same time offer marine life some good “housing” opportunities. For divers, these locations need to prove as an attraction as well- since without attracting divers, they will not serve the purpose of distributing stress. The most common way of creating such attraction until today has been by sinking ships at strategic locations.

Ocean Bricks has developed a new platform. While initially looking like a not very attractive piece of concrete, the “Reef Land” platform provides a safe environment for divers as well as marine life. It can be easily and accurately placed, allowing to plan and create whole arrays of artificial reefs. Currently, there is one such sample unit placed in the Red Sea shore of Eilat, Israel. Corals are planted on it, allowing experimenting with rapid coral growth and testing the way marine life respond to this foreign object.

I recently visited the location, equipped with my Olympus C-8080 and matching underwater photography case, here are some samples:

Got other samples of environmental projects photographed? Let us know!

Knowing in advance that the Cessna 172 is quite a small aircraft, I decided to equip myself with my Olympus C-8080 and a wide lens converter (Any connection to this website’s name? yes- I like wide angle images), hoping that this set will let me capture nice photos of the cockpit and cabin of the aircraft.

The choice of equipment proved itself quite well. Locating interesting angles to shoot from, when sitting inside a crowded cockpit\cabin is actually fun. Trying not to disturb the pilot too much, all that was left to do is enjoy the views as we crossed the Tel-Aviv skyline along the mediterranean shore.

At the end of a short, 30 minute flight, here are some of the results.

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All images taken with my Olympus C-8080, used super macro mode and a tripod for some of them.

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