Live Reports: Anilao Underwater Shootout 2018
Live Reports: Anilao Underwater Shootout 2018
Day 3
The contest continues, with the pressure on the contestants mounting as the deadline for submissions approaches. Images can be submitted throughout the contest, but the hard deadline will be Saturday 1 December by 8 am. Perhaps predictably, many of the 200 photographers will wait until the absolute last minute!
Chatting to judge John Thet, each entrant can submit up to 5 images, and there are around 200 contestants registered thus far, so the judging panel will have its workout out!
The media and judges boats set out to visit some more of the lovely reefs around Anilao. We crossed from the mainland over to Marikaban Island with the inevitable inter boat rivalry (the judge’s boat won…)
Our first dive site was called Aphols and was a classic reef site, with lots of healthy and colorful soft corals. I had elected to shoot macro, and there were lots of critters to be found.
Certainly, the site lent itself to both wide-angle and macro diving. The upper parts of the reef were really pretty and colorful and in my case, I missed my wide-angle lens.
I was testing Inon’s new macro wet lenses
Our second dive was on a classic muck diving site called Coconut. This was a dark sand slope with small coral bommies and lots of cool critters.
We went back to Acacia Resort and I quickly hopped onto a boat (kindly organized by Acacia’s Oliver Ang) and went over the Buceo Anilao house reef to watch Team Buceo Anilao in action.
The site was a classic muck site again. What was interesting to watch is how demanding the diving was. The team had pre-planned a series of shots and then got in the water to carry out their plans.
This often involved significant collaboration between both the team members and their guides. When it is called a team event, it is certainly true! Many thanks to Erik Goossens and team Buceo Anilao!
Many of the media went out on a night dive, while judges Ellen Cuylaerts and Indra Swari presenting talks. Indra unraveled the secrets of macro shooting, while Ellen provided a personal perspective on both shooting style and protecting the oceans.
So tomorrow is the final day of shooting for the contestants, so the pressure is definitely on to them to produce their winning images!