News
2018 Digital Shootout
Coverage of the 2018 Digital Shootout Is Now Online at www.thedigitalshootout.com
Held every year in June and sponsored by Backscatter Underwater Video and Photo, full coverage of the world’s largest and longest running underwater photography and videography learning event, the Digital Shootout is now online.
This year’s event was hosted by Coco View Resort www.cocoviewresort.com in Roatan. With excellent diving conditions, a host of new faces and an expanded list of seminars and classes, this year’s Digital Shootout was one of the best in the event’s 18-year history. Staffed by some of the industry’s top underwater imaging professionals, the Digital Shootout offers shooters of all levels a chance to learn about technique, post-processing, and equipment in a hands-on environment as well as dive and meet with others who share the same passion. With the largest and most diverse demo gear fleet at an underwater imaging event, the Digital Shootout also gives guests the opportunity to try out new gear.
Shootout Life—See What It’s Like to be in the Middle of it All
If you ever wanted to know what it’s like to attend a Digital Shootout, check out the Shootout Life section of the site. “I think having a group of people all with same mindset and focus leads to a lot of great camaraderie that you don’t get on a run-of-the-mill scuba trip. Everyone has the same goals–to get great images,” said Backscatter CEO, Jim Decker. “There were many a late night at the bar with people talking f stops, lenses, and how they just got or just missed the shot. At the end of the event the final awards presentation was shown on a 12 foot wide screen in the ocean for a unique experience, followed by an awesome after party. It was a great group of people and certainly the highlight of the year for me.”
Digital Shootout staff member Joel Penner shot an awesome Day in the Life video to give a non-attendee a taste of what it’s like to be at the Digital Shootout at: http://www.thedigitalshootout.com/roatan-2018/shootout-life/.
Learning—The Core Mission of the Digital Shootout
The learning aspect is the main draw to the event and the primary focus. This year’s event included seminars and classes on the fundamentals of underwater photography, organizing and editing images in Lightroom and Photoshop, creative lighting, split shots, advanced video, editing video in Adobe Premier, visual storytelling and more. Among the teaching staff were Backscatter founder Berkley White, Backscatter CEO Jim Decker, Adobe Certified Expert expert Erin Quigley, Brazilian Emmy award-wimming filmmaker Cristian Dimitrius and pro videographer Steffan Schulz. “It was great to see the participants improve throughout the week,” said Backscatter CEO Jim Decker. “I’m really proud of the progress everyone made, and it shows in the contest results.”
Demo Gear and Gear Tests
Every year one of the most popular parts of the shootout is the demo gear. “We had a great lineup of gear this year from Nauticam, Olympus, Light & Motion and Pegasus Thrusters,” said Backscatter Media Producer Robin Dodd. “If you ever wanted to try anything from a compact, mirriroless, SLR, video lights, fluro lights, and even underwater scooters, it was here and available. There’s so much demo gear that people were able try out gear multiple times throughout the event. There’s no other place you can try out so much diverse gear in one spot than at the Digital Shootout.”
With so much underwater imaging gear in one place at the same time, the Backscatter and demo gear staff engage in a lot of testing and familiarizing ourselves with the newest and hottest items out in the wild. “The gear test section of the website always proves to be one of the most popular sections of the shootout site,” said Backscatter Resident Photographer Dylan Silver. “Everyone wants to see images from the latest gear and see how it performed at the event.”
Contest Results
Contest? What contest? While there is an imaging contest at the end of the week, this is primarily a learning event, not a competition. While there might be some serious people putting in a lot of work, the atmosphere is friendly and supportive, with many past winners and advanced shooters giving advice to others. We wouldn’t want to have it any other way. This year’s highest honor, the Jim Watt award, was presented to 17-year-old Alex Seys, the youngest participant to ever win best-in-show, for his incredible macro video compilation. “A big congratulations to Alex for being our youngest best of show winner ever, and with a video, which is also a first,” said Backscatter CEO Jim Decker.” Alex has been coming to the shootout for years and has been working really hard at improving his skills and it really shows.” Previously the award has never been given to a videographer. Check out Alex’s video and all the winners at www.thedigitalshootout.com/roatan-2018/contest-results.
Rolex Our World Underwater and Boston Sea Rovers Scholarship Winners Attend the Digital Shootout
Yann Herrera, the Our World Underwater North American Rolex Scholar, and Jake Stout, intern and scholarship winner for Boston Sea Rovers were sponsored by Backscatter with scholarships to attend the event. For both of them, it was their first time shooting underwater. “We feel honored to have Yann and Jake attend the Digital Shootout on scholarship this year,” said Jim Decker, CEO of Backscatter. “They did very well especially considering this was both their first time shooting underwater! We know that time and money can be a difficult barrier for young people to be able to get into underwater imaging, and we want to encourage the next generation of underwater image makers and ocean advocates be able to get out there and shoot.”
You can check out Yann and Jake’s progress at the shootout in the Shootout Life section of the website at www.thedigitalshootout.com/roatan-2018/shootout-life.
Blogs
Northern Red Sea Reefs and Wrecks Trip Report, Part 2: Wall to Wall Wrecks
Jake Davies boards Ghazala Explorer for an unforgettable Red Sea diving experience…
The second day’s diving was a day full of wreck diving at Abu Nuhas, which included the Chrisoula K, Carnatic, and Ghiannis D. The first dive of the day was onto the Chrisoula K, also known as the wreck of tiles. The 98m vessel remains largely intact where she was loaded with tiles which can be seen throughout the hold. The stern sits at 26m and the bow just below the surface. One of the highlights of the wreck is heading inside and seeing the workroom where the machinery used for cutting the tiles are perfectly intact. The bow provided some relaxing scenery as the bright sunlight highlighted the colours of the soft coral reef and the many reef fish.
Following breakfast, we then headed to the next wreck, which was the Carnatic. The Carnatic is an 89.9m sail steamer vessel that was built in Britain back in 1862. She ran aground on the reef back in 1869 and remains at 27m. At the time, she was carrying a range of items, including 40,000 sterling in gold. An impressive wreck where much of the superstructure remains, and the two large masts lay on the seafloor. The wooden ribs of the hull provide structures for lots of soft corals, and into the stern section, the light beams through, bouncing off the large shoals of glass fish that can be found using the structure as shelter from the larger predators that are found outside of the wreck.
The final wreck at Abu Nuhas was the Ghiannis D, originally called ‘Shoyo Maru,’ which was 99.5m long and built in Japan back in 1969 before becoming a Greek-registered cargo ship in 1980. The ship then ran aground on the reef on April 19th, 1983, and now sits at the bottom at a depth of 27m. Heading down the line, the stern of the ship remains in good condition compared to the rest of the hull. The highlight of the wreck, though, is heading into the stern section and down the flights of stairs to enter the engine room, which remains in good condition and is definitely worth exploring. After exploring the interior section of the ship, we then headed over to see the rest of the superstructure, where it’s particularly interesting to see the large table corals that have grown at the bow relatively quickly considering the date the ship sank. After surfacing and enjoying some afternoon snacks, we made sure everything was strapped down and secured as we would be heading north and crossing the Gulf of Suez, where the winds were still creating plenty of chop.
The next morning, it was a short hop to Ras Mohammed Nature Reserve for the next couple of days of diving. The 6am wake-up call came along with the briefing for the first site we would be diving, which was Shark & Yolanda. The low current conditions allowed us to start the dive at Anemone City, where we would drift along the steep, coral-filled wall. These dives involved drifts, as mooring in Ras Mohammed wasn’t allowed to protect the reefs. As a dive site, Shark & Yolanda is well-known and historically had a lot of sharks, but unfortunately not so many in recent years, especially not so early in the season. However, there was always a chance when looking out into the blue.
The gentle drift took us along the steep walls of the site, with plenty of anemone fish to be seen and a huge variety of corals. It wasn’t long into the dive before we were accompanied by a hawksbill turtle, who drifted with us between the two atolls before parting ways. Between the two reefs, the shallow patch with parts of coral heads surrounded by sand provided the chance to see a few blue-spotted stingrays that were mainly resting underneath the corals and are always a pleasure to see. With this being the morning dive, the early sunlight lit up the walls, providing tranquil moments. Looking out into the blue, there was very little to be seen, but a small shoal of batfish shimmering underneath the sunlight was a moment to capture as we watched them swim by as they watched us.
Towards the end of the dive, we stopped at the wreck of the Jolanda where the seafloor was scattered with toilets from the containers it was carrying. This provided a unique site to make a safety stop, which was also accompanied by a large barracuda slowly swimming by, along with a hawksbill turtle calmly swimming over the reef as the sun rays danced in the distance.
For the next dive, we headed north to the Strait of Tiran to explore the reefs situated between Tiran Island and Sharm El Sheik, which were named after the British divers who had found them. We started on Jackson before heading to Gordons Reef, where we also did the night dive. All the atolls at these sites provided stunning, bustling coral reefs close to the surface and steep walls to swim along, which always provided the opportunity to keep an eye out for some of the larger species that can be seen in the blue. Midwater around Jackson Reef was filled with red-toothed triggerfish and shoals of banner fish, which at times were so dense that you couldn’t see into the blue. Moments went by peacefully as we enjoyed the slow drift above the reef, watching these shoals swim around under the mid-afternoon sun.
The night dive at Gordon’s Reef was mainly among the stacks of corals surrounded by sand, which was great to explore under the darkness. After some time circling the corals, we came across what we were really hoping to find, and that was an octopus hunting on the reef. We spent the majority of the dive just watching it crawl among the reef, blending into its changing surroundings through changes in colour and skin texture. It’s always so fascinating and captivating to watch these incredibly intelligent animals, in awe of their ability to carry out these physical changes to perfectly blend into the reef. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the boat to enjoy a well-deserved tasty dinner prepared by the talented chefs onboard.
Check in for the 3rd and final part of this series from Jake tomorrow!
To find out more about the Northern Red Sea reef and wrecks itineraries aboard Ghazala Explorer, or to book, contact Scuba Travel now:
Email: dive@scubatravel.com
Tel: +44 (0)1483 411590
Photos: Jake Davies / Avalon.Red
Marine Life & Conservation
Double Bubble for Basking Sharks
The Shark Trust is excited to announce that, for two more days only, all donations, large or small, will be doubled in the Big Give Green Match Fund!
Donate to Basking in Nature: Sighting Giants
The Shark Trust is hoping to raise £10k which will be doubled to £20k. This will go towards Basking in Nature: Sighting Giants. And they need YOUR help to reach they’re goal.
The Shark Trust’s citizen science project is to monitor and assess basking sharks through sightings; encouraging data collection, community engagement, and promoting nature accessibility. This initiative aims to enhance health and wellbeing by fostering a deeper connection with British Sharks.
Campaign Aims
- Increase citizen science reporting of Basking Sharks and other shark sightings to help inform shark and ray conservation.
- Provide educational talks about the diverse range of sharks and rays in British waters and accessible identification guides!
- Create engaging and fun information panels on how to ID the amazing sharks and rays we have on our doorstep! These can be used on coastal paths around the Southwest. With activities and information on how you can make a difference for sharks and rays!
- Promote mental wellbeing through increasing time in nature and discovering the wonders beneath the waves!
Donate, and double your impact. Click Here
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