WINNERS OF THE BTS 2005 WORLDWIDE PHOTO/VIDEO COMP

WITH OVER 400 ENTRIES FROM 18 COUNTRIES, THESE ARE THE WINNERS OF THE BENEATH THE SEA 2005 WORLDWIDE UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY/VIDEO COMPETITION

Visit http://www.beneaththesea.org/v2005/photo_c...ntest_2005.html to see all the winning entries.

The Best in Show for Underwater Photography receives the David Doubilet Award for Excellence in Photography and a live-aboard trip on an EXPLORER live aboard. Living up to this photo contests international standing, this year's winner, is "Jellyfish" by Dmitry Rudakov of Saint-Petersburg, Russia.

The Best in Show-Creative application of photography receives the Jim Church Award for Excellence in Underwater Creative Photography and a live-aboard trip aboard Peter Hughes Windancer in Tobago. This year's winner is Gregory Sweeny of Aukland, New Zealand and Bokeelia, Florida.

The Best in Show-Video receives the Stan Waterman Award for Excellence in Underwater Videography and a live-aboard trip on the Undersea Hunter to Cocos island. This year's winner is Steve Douglas of La Mesa, California for his video: Nocturnal Nebula.

2005 COMPETITION WINNERS:

Video:

1st place: Guy Chaumette, Hampshwaite, Harrogate, England: "Jawfish Nursery"

2nd place: Michael Boom, Oakland, California: "Why We Visit"

3rd Place: Mary Anne Pedoto, Hamilton, Ohio: "Imagine Indonesia"

Photo:

General Category:

1st place: Rick J. Coleman, Garden Grove, Ca.: "Salt Pier, Bonaire"

2nd place: J.E. Johnson, Irving, TX: "Pinjalo & Barracudas"

3rd place: Marian Legutky, "Net"

Marine Life Category:

1st place: Steve M. Genkins, Charlotte, N.C.: "Mantis Shrimp"

Macro/Close-up Category:

1st place: Kasey Canton Christiansted, VI: "Crabby"

2nd place: Linda Cline, Forest Grove, OR: "Silk Haven"

3rd place: Ralph L. Oberlander, Dover, NH: "Neon Shrimp"

Honorable Mention: James Wiseman, Houston, Tx

Shipwrecks:

1st place: Ernst Seeling, Vienna Austria: "Our Confidence Wreck"

2nd place: Burkhard Ohlendorf, Hilden, Germany: "Red Sea Wreck"

3rd place: Dodi Alessandro, Milano, Italy: "Pacific Gas"

Creative

1st place: Gregory Sweeney, Aukland, New Zealand and Bokeelia, Florida: "Shockwave"

2nd place: E. Seeling, Vienna, Austria: Cave Diver"

3rd place: E. Seeling, Vienna, Austria: "Narked Out"

Honorable Mention: E. Seeling, Vienna, Austria: "Bonaire"

The winners of the Beneath the Sea 2005 Worldwide Photo/Video Competition will be shown at the Saturday Night Film Festival during the weekend of Beneath the Sea's Ocean Adventure and Travel Exposition, March 18th, 19th, and 20th , 2005, at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey.

For more information on the Photo Contest, to enter next year's Photo Contest, or to see the winning photos please keep your eyes on the Beneath the Sea Website: WWW.Beneaththesea.org throughout the year.

Hi Bob,

Nice recognition for the winners and congratulations to them all.

Looking forward to seeing you at BTS in a few weeks.

Michel

Hi Robert,

Thanks for posting the winners here! I added a news item to the Wetpixel homepage. You should also note that I've added the Behavior winners to the list, as they were left out of your original email.

Way to go gang! The fact that this competition accepted digital and film entries together is novel. We went head to head and swept the Macro category!

Sincerely,

James Wiseman

Congrats to you all, well done.

Great choice for BOS also.

Congrats to all of you who placed in the BTS competition. I will say that this turned out to be a TOUGH competition. I submitted some variations of my first place wins from other competitions and did not even get an honerable mention. That will tell you two things:

1. Subjective judging is, well, subjective.

2. The judges themselves. BTS uses non-divers as part of their council. Thus those people know very little about the trials and tribulations of capturing underwater scenes (animals, scenic and behavior, etc.) What do we get in return? A WHOLE NEW perspective on what is considered a good pic. THAT MAKES IT A TOUGH AND COMPETITIVE competition. So again, a very warm congrats to all of you who kicked ass in this competition. And to those who submitted winners and did not place....keep on shooting....as I will.

Your buddy Joe

BTS uses non-divers as part of their council.  

Interesting - my winning shot was the least favorite of my 6 entries. I almost didn't submit because it wasn't at the level of my other entries.

Kasey

Ah well, felt good about my placing for a few days anyway...

Ah well, felt good about my placing for a few days anyway...

Just because they used non-divers doesn't make your win less significant. It just complicates how we select photos for submission. Complexity and difficulty that may be appreciated by an underwater photographer might be judged down by a non-diver in favor of simple captures of attractive subjects.

BTS uses non-divers as part of their council.

Joe is wrong. Each of the judges is a diver as well as being professionally involved with photography. Each is more than a little experienced with the trials and tribulations of underwater photography. Take a look, for example, at http://www.gotosnapshot.com/

When I originally posted the winners, I inadvertantly left of the names of the winners in the U/W Behavior category. They are:

Rand McMeins, 1st place

Istvan Juhasz, 2nd place

JE Johnson, 3rd place.

My apologies and congratulations to them.

Bob