Digital Online

Underwater Photography and Film Competition

2012 PRIZE SPONSORS:

DIGITAL ONLINE UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD CEREMONY 2011
Digital Online is a yearly internet entry based underwater photography competition run by Emirates Diving Association. Professional and amateur UAE underwater photographers upload 3 unpublished photographs of their choice following the competition specs and regulations for the three categories of Fish, Macro and Wide Angle. This year's deadline for submissions was the 31st of April at midnight.

EDA is celebrating its third Digital Online this year with 21 registered candidates. They are proud to introduce and acknowledge the professional and upcoming underwater photographers living in the UAE that all share a passion for this style of photography. You will have seen and will see many of their names appear in the EDA Magazine, 'Divers For The Environment', illustrating past and upcoming front covers and features.

This year's Digital Online Award Ceremony takes place at thejamjar on the 26th of May to unveil this unique exhibit of beautiful images. Guests will be able to meet this year's candidates and converse about underwater photography with other like minded folk, catch up with old friends and indulge in sumptuous canapés from The Lime Tree Café and Kitchen and quench their thirst with some cool refreshments.

This year's Dubai based Photo Coordinator was Marcelo Mariozi and the competition Jury were, EDA's Project Manager Reema Abbas, from Brazil Luis Fernando Cassino, Kadu Pinheiro and Daniel Botelho, and from Portugal Vasco Pinhol. All of whom are reputed professional and award winning underwater and/or other speciality photographers. The prize sponsors for first and second place overall are sponsored by Biosphere Expeditions, 3rd Place Overall is sponsored by Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi and Al Mahara Diving Center, 1st place for Fish, Macro and Wide Angle is sponsored by Discover Orient Holidays, 2nd Place for Fish, Macro and Wide Angle is sponsored by Scuba Dubai and 3rd Place for Fish, Macro and Wide Angle is sponsored by Atlantis Dive Centre.

Digital Online's main objectives are:
· To gather information on the number of underwater photographers in the UAE (both professional and amateur);
· To discover new promising underwater photographers in the UAE;
· To develop the human interaction with the underwater environment by displaying the beauty of its fauna and flora.
Digital Online is open to all UAE Nationals and all people living in the UAE under a valid Residence Visa and of any diving qualification.

Categories
· Fish (F): Photographs of whole fish and/or fish parts as the main visual element (NOT mammals, crustaceans, molluscs etc…) taken with any lens, portraying its natural behavior and environment.
· Macro (M): Photographs taken with close up-equipment view, portraying underwater flora and/or fauna. The main element NOT being fish.
· Wide Angle (W): Photographs taken with a wide-angle lens (or adapters that provide an equal field-of-view), with or without human presence, portraying the natural beauty of the underwater environment and/or the human interaction underwater.

DIGITAL ONLINE 2011 RESULTS
We would like to thank and congratulate all of this year's 21 candidates who participated in Digital Online 2011. You have made this event a great success and have given the UAE underwater photographers a great platform to address and recognise all others alike in this field of photography.

2010 EDA Digital Online Underwater Photography Competition
We are very proud to give you this year’s Digital Online Underwater Photography Competition results by Marcelo Mariozi. The official results and prizes were given on the 24th of June at the EDA Gala Dinner in the Emirates Towers – Godolphin Ballroom.

The Macro category showed us some impressive results. I normally tend to think of this category as the most “democratic” one as even beginners can achieve great results with relatively inexpensive equipment. Of course this does not help alleviate the pressure on the more advanced photographers, and this year, Peter Mainka won it with his image of a nudibranch at 75.6 points, followed closely by Jonathan Clayton with 72.4 and Marc Viloria at 70.8 points.

The Fish category is normally where the most experienced diver shows some advantage most of the time as the subject is more than often difficult to approach in an artistic way. Domnique Zawisza won with a great image scoring 83 points, followed again by Jonathan Clayton at 77.8 points which was slightly ahead of Ahmed El Gouza with 75.8 points!

The Wide Angle category is what normally defines the champ, it is the most technically demanding category where technique and equipment comes heavily into play and the better photographer has the definitive upper hand. This year Ahmed El Gouza won it with a great scenic shot of the Red Sea scoring 82.4 points with Dijana Cetinic winning second place with 78 points and Marc Viloria winning third place with his image of 70 points.

Overall Results
Winning the Wide Angle category and scoring high overall in the 3 categories, Ahmed El Gouza is our overall gold winner this year, with Domnique Zawisza winning silver and Dijana Cetinic winning bronze. With two women and all new comers winning the 3 cups, it is a renewed energy for us to keep doing the Digital Online Underwater Photography Competition with the same, continuous passion! Congratulations to our 2010 winners!

2009 EDA Underwater Photo Contest Awards Ceremony
Sponsor: Le Meridien Al Aqah donated a 2 night stay voucher as the 1st prize.

After a successful response to our first Digital Online Underwater Photo Competition, an awards ceremony was held at a conference hall in the Kempinski Hotel – Mall of The Emirates in Dubai on Sunday the 5th of July 2009 to announce the winners of the three photographic categories; Macro, Fish and Wide Angle.

A short introductory speech was given by Ibrahim Al Zu’bi, which was followed by a slide show by Steve Walsh showing different underwater images from all over the world. Marcelo Mariozi, who coordinated the competition then gave a detailed presentation on underwater photography and his vision for the future of UW photography and upcoming competitions and courses. Marcelo also introduced the international panel of judges and their areas of expertise.

It was fantastic to see how this contest created an interest toward UW photography. We look forward to the results for the 2010 Underwater Photo Contest in June.