Report from Lembeh Resort

The Shootout 2018 has kicked off in both Lembeh, Indonesia and Gulen Norway. Alex Mustard is the team captain in Lembeh, while Keri Wilk is the team captain in Gulen. They will each lead their teams from June 15th to June 23rd. Wetpixel Editor Adam Hanlon is on hand in Norway while associate editor Abi Smigel Mullens is stationed in Lembeh, both providing live coverage throughout the event.

The Shootout is a live underwater shootout combining an individual competition with a team event between two resorts, one at Lembeh Resort and the other at Gulen Dive Resort. There will be three contest categories: Nudibranchs, Fish and Invertebrates and Wide Angle. The event will consist of a practice day for each category, followed by a contest day. At the end of each contest day, team captains will submit a portfolio of participant’s images from each resort. These will then be entered into a public vote on uwshootout.com.

The first day of the competition is a practice day, and competitors worked on their first subject: Nudibranchs.

At the conclusion of a full day of diving and practising, team captain Alex Mustard went over the day’s images with the shooters and came up with some good strategies for photographing nudibranchs on the first competition day coming up tomorrow.

Tomorrow both Lembeh and Gulen shooters will be out for their photo competition and submitting their best nudibranch photo for a public vote at the end of the day. Public voting will go live at 10pm Gulen Time and we will post the link to the competition images on the Shootout website.

Report from Gulen Dive Resort

The Shootout has begun! Two teams have now gathered and spent the first day practising and honing their skills. The first competition round challenges the participants to capture creative and captivating images of nudibranchs. Both resorts have large numbers of these charismatic animals, making them ideal venues.

Team Gulen started off the day with organizer Adam Hanlon chatting though how the contest will be structured, followed by Gulen’s Guido Schmitz emphasising the centre’s policy on diving.

They were immediately followed by team captain Keri Wilk presenting a comprehensive talk focusing on creative techniques that may be useful for capturing stunning images of nudibranchs. Inevitably the first day also involved a fair amount of shakedown, as the team tried out camera, lens and lighting combinations.

Fortunately, the dives were all on Gulen’s excellent house reef, allowing both the opportunity for easy experimentation and lots of shorter dives with varying objectives and configurations.

After a busy day’s shooting, the team gathered for an evening meal after which Keri presented a review of some of the participant’s images. Based on what we saw tonight, Team Lembeh have got a serious fight on their hands….

Tomorrow is the contest day, and Team Gulen have to have produced their images ready for submission by 8pm. The public vote will then open at 10pm (CEST). Please visit uwshootout.com and place your vote for your favourite.

Day 1 - Nudibranch Practice Day
Day 2 - Competition Day
Day 3 - Fish and Inverterbrate Practice Day
Day 4 - Fish and Invertebrate Competition Day Day 5 - Wide angle practice day