BUIF 2009

I achieved "runner-up" status in the "Sea & Sea Open" category of the British Underwater Image Festival last weekend, with this image:

Seals and sea-lions were very popular, and, indeed, the winning shot was of one, as was the winner of the "UK" category.

I completely failed in the "Splash-in" competition (camera problems, Force 5-7 wind, squalls, swell and cancelled boat trips), but members of the East Midlands Underwater Photography Group did amazingly well.

Tim

I don't know about others, but I'd enjoy hearing how you took the shot and what post processing you did.

Fantastic photo Tim. Congrats!

Cheers, Simon

WTG Tim. Very cool shot.

Really nice shot!

I love this shot. It is truly stunning! Tim, is this an example of "Snell's Window"?

Here's a link to see all the winning images:

http://www.divemagazine.co.uk/news/article.asp?uan=5205

I didn't know Keri Wilk owned a wide angle lens!

Excellent shot, wish I'd taken it

Well done!

Steve

Great shot Tim...beautiful

I didn't know Keri Wilk owned a wide angle lens!

Probably borrowed it....

Fantastic photo Tim. Congrats!

 

Cheers, Simon

Simon

Congrats to you too....

Congarts Tim! Truly great shot!

Karel

Really cool shot, Tim! I've always wanted to play with circular fisheyes, they give such a unique perspective. I'm also curious to see what that Inon endoscope/anteater lens can do too...

I didn't know Keri Wilk owned a wide angle lens!

Someone played a horrible trick on me by switching my 105mm lens with one of those "10-17mm" ones I've heard about, along with a strange looking dome-shaped port.... I was hoping to get shots of the sea lion's eyeball! Gotta love your cenote shot once again too, Karen! It's worked wonders for you!!

Congrats to all!

I don't know about others, but I'd enjoy hearing how you took the shot and what post processing you did.

It's shot on the reef in about 4m of water, just by the "blue-water" mangrove in Misool.

I told the audience last week that I found the widest lens that I could, and looked for a circular subject; as you can imagine, it's a bit harder than that when you get down to the details:

Nikon D200. Sigma 4.5mm fisheye, aimed straight up at Snell's window, two Inon strobes on sTTL, but -1 stop, pulled back about 10cm behind the base of a 120mm radius dome port with the shade removed. Manual exposure, set for the surface illumination. Photoshop CS4 RAW converter to tweak exposure and colour balance; saved dng file reprocessed in CS4 using "Noise Ninja" plug-in to sharpen just the lionfish on a new layer*, and then adjusted in curves and colour balance. A few bubbles removed with the patch tool. Output as psd and jpeg.

* selected by painting a white mask over the fish on the sharpened layer; I use a WACOM tablet and pen quite a lot when working with layers and selections

The hardest part? Waiting for the fish to swim right over the dome (about 10cm above it, in the best image), and holding your breath so as not to disturb Snell's window...

... and being asked if it was a composite image!

Two other attempts:

I cloned out an image of my regulator from one image.

I wanted to shoot Snell's window through the mangroves (see my Raja Ampat "Ultimate Indonesia" posts for examples), but that didn't have the impact of the lionfish. Maybe the image works because it's a different take on a familiar subject? I would have liked the lionfish to look at its reflection in the dome, but that didn't happen.

Tim

Marvellous shut Tim, congratz (-;

I love to use the 8mm lense for still photography pretty a lot.

Example:

http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/mypics/9...isplay/13784793

http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/mypics/9...isplay/13738121

c u

Uwe

I love to use the 8mm lense for still photography pretty a lot.

Sehr schoen, Uwe!

Tim

Congrats, Tim, and congrats all.

As was indicated in the official write up I really loved your shot "while Alex Mustard in particular was impressed by Tim Priest's circular fisheye portrait of a lionfish over coral, a technical triumph that earned him second place"

I think the other judges didn't like it as much for the reason you state:

I would have liked the lionfish to look at its reflection in the dome, but that didn't happen.

Especially when there are other well know lionfish images that have this!

Jane also just put some images of the award ceremony up online on Facebook - I missed being there handing out the prizes this year

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1126...9047&ref=nf

Being a print competition it is always interesting to see images that you have seen online as prints. Some look stunning - others don't hold up (often over processed) and the images are judged as prints - so a winner has to be a stunning shot and well printed.

I felt the Britsh Waters category had many strong images, probably the most strength in depth I have seen: as a result the difference between the winners and the rest of the top 20 was small. Although the unusual conditions of Capernwray (a UK freshwater dive site, which has much clearer water than most other UK sites) almost requires a separate category.

There were many excellent portfolios, but many more were let down by having 4-5 stunning image and 1-2 average ones. There were some images in portfolios that could have given Keri and run for his money in the Open Prints - had they been taken there.

Well done to all... Especially my mate Simon Spear for his 3rd place

It was nice to see more Pike (Esox Lucius) pics being shown... Still a underestimated beauty in my opinion...

Dive safe

DeanB

With this one I've managed to gain even some success in the Deep Indonesia 2009 contest (((-;

http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/mypics/9...isplay/13738121

Again 8mm fisheye lense used.

C u

Uwe Schmolke