Outdoor Photography

In a move welcomed by marine conservationist s,

Mexico has created the largest ocean reserve in

North America, covering an area of 57,000 square

miles around the Revillagigedo Islands. The four

volcanic islands lie approximately 240 miles south-

west of the tip of the Baja California peninsula and were

declared a UNESCO World Heritage Area in 2016.

Although the archipelago has a number of endemic

plant and animal sp ecies, it is the varied marine life that

will benefi t from the newly est ablished national park,

which sees a ban on all fi shing and the extract ion of

natural resources from the area. The hope is that the

dramatic move will help marine life populations recover

from the aggressive commercial fi shing of the past.

The line-up for the Behind the Scenes Theatre at

The Photography Show 2018 has been announced, with

a number of speakers who are sure to appeal to outdoor

photographers. For wildlife enthusiasts, Tesni Ward

will be explaining how she gets her intimate wildlife

shots. Landscapers will enjoy hearing about Nige

Levanterman’s long exposures, Karl Holtby’s evocative

landscapes and Alyn Wallace’s astrophotography,

or Nicholas White’s project photographing the UK’s

mountain bothies. These talks – and others – are

included in the entry ticket fee to the show, which runs

from 17-20 March at The NEC, Birmingham.

See more details at photographyshow.com.

February 2018 Outdoor Photography 9

NUMBER

CRUNCH

12,

In summer 2017,

the RSPB asked

the public to send it pictures of

puffins carrying fish. This wasn’t

a niche photography competition,

but an appeal designed to help the

organisation build up a picture of

what the birds were feeding their

young; how the food differed

based on location and time of

year; and whether warming seas

and shifting ocean currents were

impacting the birds. In total, the

UK’s ‘Puffarazzi’ sent in over

1,400 photographs from almost

40 puffin colonies, enabling in

excess of 12,000 fish to be

identified and a wealth of data

to be recorded.

rspb.org.uk/projectpuffin

1 MILLION

Mend

our

Mountains has set a target of £1m,

which it hopes to raise through

crowdfunding for a range of ‘vital

path repair project s’ across

the UK’s 15 national parks. The

appeal follows a successful

two-month campaign in sp ring

2016, which saw the public donate

more than £100,000 to improve

paths in England and Wales,

including those on Scafell Pike

and Snowdon. The new target

encompasses a wider range of

project s and regions, with national

parks as far apart as Dartmoor

and the Cairngorms hoping to

benefi t. To fi nd out more visit

mendmountains.thebmc.co.uk.

20

The number of plant and

animal sp ecies that Back

from the Brink aims to bring ‘back

from the brink’ of extinct ion in

England. A partnership between

Natural England and Rethink

Nature, it aims to help ensure the

long-term survival of 20 sp ecies

and benefi t over 200 more. See

more details at naturebft b.co.uk.

Award-winning panoramas revealed

© Nigel Taylor (rsp

b-images.com)

© Jesus M. Garcia

The winners of the 8th Epson International Pano

Awards have been announced, with Spain’s Jesus

M Garcia the overall winner of the 2017 Open

competition for panoramic images. Jesus’ photograph

was taken in China after a one-hour climb to the

top of a mountain at 3am ensured he was in the

perfect position for sunrise. The photographer then

recorded and stitched together seven vertical frames

to produce a panorama that has bagged him a prize

package worth in excess of $11,000.

In the Amateur awards category, the UK’s Darren

Moore took home the top prize: his minimal

monochrome image of beach huts at Blackwater

Estuary in Essex won him a Nikon D810 camera kit

and $1,500 (among other goodies). To see more of the

entries, head over to thepanoawards.com.

Courtesy of ZEISS

Legendary lens manufacturer Zeiss has teamed up

with the German Arggonauts team from Fraunhofer

Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image

Exploitation in Karlsruhe to help them in their quest to

win the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE.

The contest, which runs over a three-year period, has

a simple goal: ‘to signifi cantly advance the exploration

of the deep ocean using unmanned, autonomous

systems’. For its part, ZEISS is lending its optical

expertise to the German team, and has spent six

months developing the UW Distagon 2.8/12, a 12mm

f/2.8 lens capable of withstanding the extreme pressure

that comes with deep-sea photography. The lens is

employed by the Arggonauts’ ‘swarm’ of 12 underwater

drones, which are transported to the dive location on

unmanned carrier boats, before autonomously mapping

and photographing the depths of the ocean. There are

two rounds, with the fi nal challenge being to map at

least 40% of a 200 square mile area at a depth of 4,000ft.

Up to 10 teams will take part in this stage of the contest,

with a prize of up to $7m on off er for the winner.

Find out more at oceandiscovery.xprize.org.

Mexican marine park est ablished Zeiss heads into the deep

Photography Show

sp eakers announced

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