Underwater Festival – Christmas Island

The underwater photo and video competition of this festival is open to everyone, visitors and locals alike. As a shootout competition all photos and video entered must have been taken during the festival period. There are fantastic prizes up for grabs worth close to $30,000 and we anticipate strong participation, so book your shootout space early.

All photographs and video to be taken between 24th and the 30th of April – except for the locals category where photos & video must be taken 17 to 30 April 2010. See detailed competition rules below.

Photos and Videos will be judged in the following categories (to be confirmed)

• Best Festival Portfolio – 5 photographs
• Best Festival Photograph – SLR camera
• Best Festival Photograph – Compact camera
• Best Festival Photograph – Novice & Sealife Camera Trials
• Best Festival Video

Shootout participants receive also free welcome BBQ, free entry to all marine wildlife presentations as well as the UF10 finale which includes the presentation of the awards.

Underwater Festival Shootout Competition rules

• This competition is open to everyone.
• This is a shootout competition over 6 days (locals have an additional week to enable them to work and play at the same time). Only photos and video taken on dives during this period can be entered. Photos and video taken on night dives can be included.
• There are now 6 categories in this competition: SLR cameras, Compact cameras, Novice & Portfolio as well as a Video category. Most categories will have a 1st, 2nd and 3rd winner.
• The novice section is restricted to photographers with underwater photography experience of less than 12 months (no SLR cameras allowed in novice category) / Sealife Camera Trial participants. Novice entrants can also compete in Compact Camera and Portfolio categories.
• Only images taken underwater can be entered into the competition (over-under shots are permitted).
• Submissions can only be digital.
• Images can be “cleaned up” and colour corrected, but cropped images are not permitted. Over-manipulation of images will effect judges decision.
• Photos have to be submitted by Thursday (29 April) afternoon 6pm. Submissions are accepted on DVD, CD or USB memory stick. Submissions must be labeled clearly with the entrants name, contact phone number and entry category. Up to 10 images can be submitted in the photo shootout. All images have to be submitted as original files (with all image data intact) as well as the optimised versions. Images have to be named in the following manner: firstname-lastname-number(1-10)-original/optimized. For example: tim-hochgrebe-1-ori.jpg. Please make a main folder firstname-lastname and subfolders originals, entries and portfolio.
• Any participating photographer can also enter the portfolio category – please create an additional folder on your submitted media with the name portfolio and include 5 (FIVE) photographs that you think work best together as a representation of your work. These 5 photos can be different photos or include any number of photos from you other submissions.
• Video entries have to be submitted by Thursday afternoon (29 April) 6pm. Finished submissions are accepted on DVD only and should be in mpeg-2 format and be playable in a standard DVD player. Maximum length for submission is 10 minutes. Each entrant can only submit one film. Submissions which use sound or any other material that is copyright protected and not used with permission will be disqualified. We also need all original media whichever format you have shot on (HDD,DVD,miniDV etc) to verify the shooting dates of your raw footage. Submissions must be labeled clearly with the entrants name, contact phone number
• The copyright of the entered photos and video remains with the photographers / videographers. The Underwater Festival organisers retain the right to publish any submitted photo / video on the Underwater Festival and underwater australasia websites and other print and web publications for the purpose of promoting future festivals and in those cases there will be no payment for the use of the copyright. Entries will also be able to be used by CITA to further promote Christmas Island as a diving destination. We will not sell or give away the rights to use your photographs to any third party without seeking prior consent. Authors will always be acknowledged if possible.
• Touching of marine life is strictly prohibited. Any violations may result in disqualification without refunds.
• AGAIN, media with correctly labeled entries has to be submitted by 6pm on Thursday – late entries will be disqualified.
• Photos will be judged by an experienced panel. All decisions of the judges are final, and not subject to review.
• Winners will be announced as part of the Underwater Festival Finale and prizes will be handed over at that time (if possible).
• Prizes and entry categories are subject to change.
• By entering the Underwater Festival Shootout Competition you agree with the above terms and conditions.