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Epson Red Sea 2011 Daily Reports |
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Day 6 - Saturday, November 19th The Epson Red Sea 2011 winning ceremony was the most festive of them all. First, each category resulted with 3 winners, rather than only one. This significantly increased the excitement and tension of all competition participants, who had better chances than ever this year to go home with a prize. Of course this also resulted with an exceptionally high number of happy faces... In addition, a special 3D live broadcasted was screened during the winning ceremony, introducing stunning footage taken underwater that week while documenting the "Fish & Fashion" category in action. Just before announcing the winners of this category, all guests at the winning ceremony were asked to put on their 3D glasses, as an innovative 3D underwater video clip was featured. Personally, I felt that the image of hundreds of guests wearing 3D glasses was even more impressive than the screening itself! Amir Stern was the one who collected the largest prize of them all - a $10,000 check for the 1st place in the 5 Best Images category. Amir Stern, who lives in Eilat, has competed in the Epson Red Sea competition for many years now, and although he has managed to win some categories before, this was his first time to take the BIG money home. Way to go! Johannes Felten took the 1st place on the "Fish & Fashion" category, which was an especially impressive accomplishment considering the fact it was his first ever underwater fashion shoot! One of the images Johannes submitted in this category was declared by the judges as the perfect cover photo for the Vogue fashion magazine. Although the judges couldn't promise anything with respect to Vogue, they chose this image to be displayed at least on the front cover of the competition album, thereby awarding Johannes with another prize - the Mayor's Prize. 1st place winner of the Video Clip category was Yigal Aharoni, who produced an amusing video clip that introduced a camera independently taking pictures underwater. When awarding this prize, Christian Petron, head of the Video Clip jury panel, complimented Yigal for the story behind his video. According to Christian, a video clip can only be successful if it introduces a good story. For other Epson Red Sea 2011 winners, please click here. At the end of the winning ceremony, everyone crossed the road to the Aqua Sport diving center, where our after-party took place. After consuming every drop of alcohol we could in the Happy Hours which took place every day during the past week, we basically emptied the bar at Aqua Sport. Whether you were a winner, nominee or just a photographer having a good time, there's one thing one cannot question. Epson Red Sea knows how to party. As for me, I had the best week ever. Sure, it was hectic, intense and totally sleepless, but it was also a rare combination of water, photography and a bunch of amazing people. I know I tend to sound a bit corny towards the end of the last day's report, but I really can't help it. I feel lucky to have been there this week.
Day 5 - Friday, November 18th Today was another day off for all Epson Red Sea participants, though it was NO DAY OFF for the jury panel. Gathered together behind sealed doors, the jury panel worked long hours in order to review, discuss and decide upon the winning images of every Epson Red Sea category. Judging upon the look on their faces upon leaving the room, it seems like decisions were difficult to make. In addition, this year – each category results with 3 winners rather than just a lonely one, which is good news for the photographers participating in the competition, and yet – more work for the judges. Serving as a judge on the Epson Red Sea competition is a prestigious position by all means, but it sure has its price!!! Photographers were enjoying themselves on the beach and in the pool, wondering around and exploring the sceneries. Pale skin that was previously well hidden beneath a dark and thick wetsuit finally got to see some sun and the results are reddish! In the evening, the Epson World ShootOut winning ceremony took place in Eilat’s Dan Hotel. Since the Epson World Shoot-Out was a competition in which participants could submit their images online, many of the photographers who took part in this competition didn’t make it to the ceremony. However, for the first time ever, the winning ceremony was broadcasted online, thereby allowing participants to take part in the excitement and find out how lucky they got in real time. Boy would I have paid a fortune to see the look on some of these fellows faces while they were sitting in front of the computer as their name was announced! During the winning ceremony, we screened an underwater 3D video clip that was taken during the week of the shoot-out here in Eilat. This was just a warm up, as tomorrow we will be screening a 3D video clip featuring the Fish & Fashion category. Although I'm a big fan on underwater creatures, I assure you there's nothing like a good looking model popping out of the screen and almost touching you... Epson World ShootOut reuslts will be published on Sunday, November 20th, on www.worldshootout.org Tomorrow evening, the Epson Red Sea winning ceremony will take place in the lawns of the Isrotel Yam-Suf hotel. The excitement is increasing, the curiosity is building up and the tension is almost unbearable, but at the end of the day – all of us, winners or not, will be consuming 1,000 bottles of beer. How bad could that be? If you won’t be able to make it to the winning ceremony tonight, watch us on LIVE BROADCASTING on www.eilatred.sea.com Good luck dear colleagues! Day 4 - Thursday, November 17th After 3 very intensive and challenging shoot-out days, photographers finally could finally enjoy a day off today. While it has been raining cats and dogs in the center of Israel during the past few days, Eilat remained quite sunny and warm, providing everyone with a wonderful platform for resting, swimming and sunbathing. Each chose their own way of unwinding during their day of, but this way or another - cameras, housings and flashes were completely out of the question today! However, walking around the dive center, you could tell that some photographers weren’t through with diving yet and found their selves getting into their wetsuits again. One of these photographers who participated in the “Fish of the Year” category, explained me that after 3 days of intensively and sometimes not so rewardingly searching for the Lizard Fish, she felt an irresistible urge to look for some other photogenic fish as well. I guess the common phrase- “there are plenty fish in the sea” – was made up by an Epson Red Sea “Fish of the Year” participant. He dated the Fish of the Year for 3 days, and eventually decided that there are other cute and good looking fish out there which he can hook up with. There you go. Today was also an opportunity to work on some projects that don’t necessarily fall into any of Epson Red Sea categories. In cooperation with FTV, we carried out an underwater photo shoot with two models based on the theme of the movie “Black Swan”. Ellie Biel was chosen to be the innocent, naïve and calm white swan, while Shelly Ben-Chabat was selected to be the dramatic, tempting and sexy black swan. Using two make-up artists, an FTV stylist, a dedicated team of assisting divers and lots of imagination, we took those gorgeous girls underwater and established a wet version of the unique interaction presented in the “Black Swan”. Boaz Samorai was capturing the scene in 3D video, while I was capturing it with stills. Although the story was made up, the adventure was for REAL. On land, we asked Ellie, the white swan, to demonstrate the body language and facial expressions of a white swan after meeting the black swan. The result was pretty much average, as it was difficult for Ellie to get into the character of a black swan. However, we were amazed to find that underwater, after spending time and interacting with Shelly, the sexy black swan, Ellie naturally got into the character and managed to perfectly and powerfully adapt the tempting, daring characteristics of a black swan. Might have we made an irreversible change?! In the evening, the Cypriot party took place, and it was happy and cheerful as ever. Uzo, beers and vodka were generously consumed, which ended up – as always – with participants being thrown into the swimming pool in the Manta diving center. Day 3 - Wednesday, November 16th That’s it! The last day of the Epson Red Sea 2011 shoot-out has concluded and by midnight, all photographers had to get out of the water and turn their cameras off. Whether you ended up with what you believe would be the winning series or just a nice folder of images to go home with, there’s always a relief at the end of the shoot-out. It’s as if during the shoot-out, any moment you spend out of the water is accompanied by severe guilt feelings, as you might as well have been diving now and capturing your $10,000 worth image. Once the shoot-out has concluded, vital activities suddenly become legitimate, such as eating, sleeping and taking a (fresh water) shower. After a week of speaking with the fish and trying to instruct them where and how to pose, even communicating with human beings suddenly seems like luxury! Close to midnight, I pass by the diving center and I can almost swear I see Tobias Friedrich and Marc Hillesheim swimming in the dive center’s pool with wetsuits and scuba equipment. True, there was a Happy Hour earlier that evening, but then again – diving in the pool?! I admit that there was a point in which I was pretty sure that these two talented fellows have desperately given up on the sea and decided to focus on photographing rubber ducks in the pool instead. But then, when I saw how happy and cheerful they are, I figured that it’s simply their own personal and extremely unique way of celebrating the end of the shoot-out… Although images can be submitted until tomorrow morning, the computers room was already packed with photographers this evening. Tough choices have to be made and most participants don’t like leaving them to the last second, although based on my experience so far, no matter how much time they spend in front of the computer screen tonight – most photographers will be starting the selection process all over again tomorrow morning! Human nature at its best... The complete jury panel has arrived by now and tomorrow the judging process will begin. All together, 41 prizes will be awarded during the winning ceremonies of Epson World ShootOut and Epson Red Sea on Friday and Saturday night. This surely increases the chances that keeping your fingers crossed will eventually turn out worthwhile! Day 2 - Tuesday, November 15th The second day of the shoot-out has concluded, and this is the point in which photographers start estimating their situation and figuring out what’s left to be done on the last day. Some have already managed to produce images that are good enough to be submitted to the competition and will be spending tomorrow, the last day of the shoot-out, on simply enhancing their portfolio. Others have managed to produce one or two good images up until now, and for these photographers – most of the work remains for tomorrow. Walking around the diving center, it’s pretty easy to differentiate between these two groups. Photographers from the first group wear a huge smile on their faces while those that belong to the second group are mostly found biting their fingernails… The Fish & Fashion category certainly contributes much to the colorful scenery in the diving center. Once in a while you bump into a model-diver wearing high heel shoes, sexy clothing and extreme make-up, always looking a bit worried due to the relatively low water temperature in Eilat this year. After their dive, models can only be found in one place – the diving center’s sauna room. Although I haven’t been eavesdropping on their conversations there, I’m pretty sure they’re all about “praising” the photographer who made them stay underwater longer than they were actually prepared for… Some of the photographers and models participating in this category have asked me why the competition isn’t carried out during the summer, when water temperature is significantly higher and the models shiver less. But frankly, what fun would that be?! While participating photographers are busy with producing their best ever results, videographers of the production team continue to cover the competition underwater using 3D systems. Towards the end of the day, we got an opportunity to watch some of this footage on a 42” 3D screen in our editor’s room and I must admit this was one of the most fascinating dives I’ve ever had in my life!!! This footage will be screened during Friday and Saturday night, on the Epson World ShootOut and Epson Red Sea winning ceremonies. All guests will be receiving 3D glasses upon arriving to the winning ceremony and will be asked to put them on prior to the screening. I’m curious to see the faces of everyone as soon as this screening begins, just as much as I’m curious to find out who the winners are. Well, not as much, but almost… In the evening, right after the daily Happy Hour, we had a cocktail opening party at the Eilat Underwater Observatory Marine Park. Great food, wine, beers, calm music and a great social gathering were very much helpful in the purpose of releasing some of the tension. For a moment there, it seemed as if photographers are a little bit bothered about the competition, though the most common answer to the question “How are you” was the number of images the photographer managed to score so far… Day 1 - Monday, November 14th Today was the first shoot-out day of the Epson Red Sea 2011 competition in Eilat, Israel. As someone who looks forward to this week all year long, I find it hard to explain how reassuring it is to watch the Isrotel Manta diving center finally wearing its annual Epson Red Sea theme. When photographers, cameras, housings, scuba diving gear and cute diver-models start satiating the diving center, you know that the moment has finally arrived and that it’s time to head out there and Epson the Red Sea. This year, it’s quite noticeable that the number of underwater photographers arriving from aboard in order to participate in the competition is especially high, which certainly highlights the international nature of the event. In addition, an exceptionally high number of photographers have registered to the Video Clip category this year. I guess videography has recently become a huge trend among underwater photographers. Either that or it has something to do with the 1st prize in the video category being upgraded to a $5,000 USD check… In many ways, the Epson Red Sea feels like a high school reunion of underwater photographers. After spending a whole year away from each other, photographers finally meet again and catch up in attempt to fill in the gaps. The only difference from a high school reunion is that instead of asking yourself- who gained how many pounds since the last reunion- you’re mainly busy with finding out who upgraded his underwater photo system during the last year and how will this affect your chances of winning a prize… The first shoot-out day is usually a bit troubling for most of the photographers. Those who participate in “fish-oriented” categories carry out their first dives in the Red Sea since their last visit, just to find out that the Moray Eel is no longer waiting for them under the southern tip of Moses Rock and that the reddish Frogfish has moved from the Satil wreck without leaving a new address behind. For those participating in the Fish & Fashion category it’s often even more complicated, as they have to establish a relationship with their new model and to gain mutual trust within a very tight timeframe. After 7 years of taking part in the Epson Red Sea event, I assure all of my colleagues that tomorrow will only get better, which is absolutely true in 99% of the cases (increasing to 100% during our daily Happy Hour…). This year, we have established a unique cooperation between Epson, Epson Red Sea, Recsea-Seatool and the FTV channel, for the purpose of documenting the competition in 3D. During both winning ceremonies, which will take place towards the end of the week, 3D underwater video clips will be featured on a huge screen, introducing a new dimension to the Epson Red Sea event. To celebrate this cooperation, our production team has headed out to the Red Sea for a dedicated “Epson Red Sea Theme” photo shoot. So now we’re about to spend an adventurous, exciting and colorful week together. Based on the fact that this year 3 prizes will be rewarded in each of the Epson Red Sea categories, I’m pinning my hopes on a very happy ending! |
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