SoCal Photo Shootout Winners Announced!
September 1st, 2011
Congrats to all the winners of the 2011 SoCal Shootout
Winning photos and videos are posted below
Winners will be awarded amazing prizes during the next week based on points and winners' ranked choices.
Shootout Judges
The SoCal Shootout was judged by some of the top professional underwater photographers in Southern California: Andy Sallmon, Todd Winner, Richard Salas and Mark Strickland. Richard is the author of "Sea of Light", a coffee table book on Channel Islands underwater photography. Andy, Mark and Todd have all been published multiple times this past year in many of the world's best dive magazines.
Where did people dive
Divers dove at San Diego wrecks & reefs, Orange County oil rigs, in the deep open ocean on blue-water dives, and at the Southern and Northern Channel Islands on September 16th, 17th and/or 18th during a 36 hour window. As you can see, it was a great weekend for marine life sightings.
Not a photoshop contest
Cropping and photoshop edits other than global changes were not allowed in this competition, which means all the photos you see below are pretty much straight out of the camera.
We look forward to having you participate in next year's shootout!
Special Thanks to our Sponsors
Wakatobi Luxury Resort
Hans Christian Andersen live-aboard (www.hcacruise.com)
Marco Vincent Dive Resort (www.mvdive.com)
Maluku Divers (www.divingmaluku.com)
Reef & Rainforest
Club Cantamar Resort (www.clubcantamar.com)
Hermosa Hotel, Avalon Catalina (www.hermosahotel.com)
Solmar V live-aboard
Dyron (www.dyronstore.com)
Ultralight (www.ulcs.com)
Truth Aquatics (www.truthaquatics.com)
Princeton Tec (www.pricetontec.com)
Spectre Dive Boat (www.calboatdiving.com)
Peace Dive Boat (www.peaceboat.com)
Channel Islands Dive Adventures (www.channelislandsdiveadventures.com)
The Giant Stride Dive Boat (www.thegiantstride.com)
"Best of Shootout"
"Having Fun" by Nayan Savla, taken at Santa Barbara Island
Winning Photos by Category
Click on photos for a larger view
Wide-Angle
1st place Wide-Angle, Michael Zeigler. "Rock Stars"
2nd place Wide-Angle, Nayan Savla. "Bat Ray on edge"
3rd place Wide-Angle, Walt Conklin. "Underwater charging station"
Honorable Mention Wide-Angle, Matthew Fischbach
Honorable Mention Wide-Angle, Roeland Papen. "Oil Rigs"
Macro
1st place Macro, Michael Zeigler. "Top Snail"
2nd place Macro, Michael Samale. "Baby Cabezon"
3rd place Macro, Brian McHugh
Honorable Mention Macro, Brian McHugh
Honorable Mention Macro, Bill Van Antwerp
Behavior
1st place Behavior, Nayan Savla
2nd place Behavior, Michael Zeigler. "Sea Lion playing with Pyrosome"
3rd place Behavior, Michael Zeigler. "Bat Ray and Krill"
Honorable Mention Behavior, Brian McHugh. "Anemone eating Pyrosome"
Honorable Mention Behavior, Walt Conklin
Portrait
1st place Portrait, Brian McHugh
2nd place Portrait, Ron Watkins
3rd place Portrait, Michael Zeigler
Honorable Mention Portrait, Ron Watkins. "Rockfish yawning"
Honorable Mention Portrait, Matthew Fischbach
Honorable Mention Portrait, Brian McHugh. "Harbor seal fly-by"
Compact Wide-Angle
1st place Compact Wide-Angle, Brent Durand. "Flying Angel"
2nd place Compact Wide-Angle, David Guth. "Sheep crab on guard"
3rd place Compact Wide-Angle, Cindy Shaw
Honorable Mention Compact Wide-Angle, Brent Durand
Honorable Mention Compact Wide-Angle, Steve Murvine
Compact Macro
1st place Compact Macro, Eric Aubort. "Anemone closeup"
2nd place Compact Macro, David Guth. "Nudibranch eggs"
3rd place Compact Macro, Nick Lawrence. "Tiny fringehead"
Honorable Mention Compact Macro, Deanna Beck
Honorable Mention Compact Macro, Gerard Lorenzo
Honorable Mention Compact Macro, Gerard Lorenzo
Compact Behavior
1st place Compact Behavior, Eric Aubort
2nd place Compact Behavior, David Guth. "Feeding on a Pyrosome"
3rd place Compact Behavior, Steve Murvine
Honorable Mention Compact Behavior, Eric Aubort
Honorable Mention Compact Behavior, Carolyn Wang. "Urchin on skeleton"
Compact Portrait
1st place Compact Portrait, Eric Aubort
2nd place Compact Portrait, Luz Martinez
3rd place Compact Portrait, David Guth. "Buddies"
Honorable Mention Compact Portrait, Nirupam Nigam
Honorable Mention Compact Portrait, Carolyn Wang
Unedited Video Category
Entries were allowed to have up to 3 unedited clips, for a total of 60 seconds of video.
1st place: Walter Marti "Black Sea Bass Shuffle", taken at Catalina Island
2nd place: Xavier Michalet "Dance of the Torpedo Ray", taken at Santa Barbara Island
3rd place: Nannette Van Antwerp "Pulsating Nudibranch", taken at Anacapa Island
4th place: Roger Uzun "Feeding Black Sea Bass", taken at Catalina Island
Honorable mention: Roger Uzun "Dualing sheephead", taken at Catalina Island & Oil Rigs
