News

BSoUP Splash-In 2010

The British Splash-In Championship - 2010, organised by the British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP), will take place on Saturday 3rd July at Mount Batten, Plymouth, Devon.
Full details at http://www.bsoup.org/Splash/2010/intro.php

The British Splash-In Championship - 2010, organised by the British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP), will take place on Saturday 3rd July at Mount Batten, Plymouth, Devon. All underwater photographers are invited to participate, whether they are members of BSoUP or not.

Prizes, trophies and individual awards will be presented for winning images in each category as judged by the audience present (see below for full details). In addition, a grand prize will be awarded by an independent panel of judges for the image selected as the best taken in local waters.

Viewing and judging of the images entered will take place at the Hotel Mount Batten on the Saturday night.

Please register by one of the following methods:

Registering online
Email martha@mtressler.com with a completed entry form or by
sending an entry form by post to Martha Tressler at the address on the entry form

ENTRY FORM

Download either On-the-Day.doc OR On-the-Day.pdf
SPLASH-IN CATEGORIES

There are four categories:- Close-Up, Wide-Angle, Animal Portrait and Humorous.
A maximum one entry per category is allowed.

Images entered in the Close-Up, Wide-Angle and Animal Portrait categories will also be entered in the overall competition for the grand prize to be chosen by a panel of judges.
Splash-In category definitions

1. Close-Up - photograph taken of an area in front of the camera A4 size or less.
2. Wide-Angle - photograph taken of an area in front of the camera greater than A4 size.
3. Animal Portrait - photograph in which a fish or other marine animal is the main focus of the image.
4. Humorous - any form of image manipulation including composite images (several images joined together) is allowed as long as all of the components were taken in the sea.
Beginners

In addition awards will be made to the Best Beginner in each category, and to an overall Best Beginner as selected by the audience. A beginner is defined as someone who has not come first, second or third in a national or international competition, such as BSoUP's Open and Beginners Portfolio Competitions, BSoUP or St Abbs splash-ins, Image, BUIF, U/W Photographer of the Year, Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Marine Conservation Society etc. Please identify yourself on the entry form if you qualify.
RULES
1. Each competitor must be at the Hotel Mount Batten in the bar between 8.30 -10.00 pm on Friday 2 July to enter and pay their entrance fee, demonstrate that their memory card is empty and take a photograph of the numbered BSoUP identification card(s). If a competitor cannot arrive on Friday night and wishes to enter on Saturday morning this can be arranged but must be specially requested in advance.

2. Competitors may take as many images as they wish, as long as they are on memory cards, which have been registered (more than one memory card may be used). Images may be taken in any format but entries must be entered in JPEG format (see 5 below for more details).

3. Competitors must hand in their chosen images in on Saturday afternoon between 16:30 and 18:00 in the Hotel Mount Batten bar. NO IMAGES WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER 18:00. Images may be downloaded to the competitor's own computer to check quality, and to perform any whole image optimisation as defined below, prior to downloading to BSoUP's computer.

4. MINIMAL digital manipulation using sharpening, colour correction, brightness and contrast adjustment may be made to the whole image ONLY except in the Humorous category (see below). No cropping is allowed. The BSoUP committee members present at the event reserve the right to examine the original untouched image. Their opinion as to whether an image submitted for the competition is eligible will be final. In addition, the judges for the grand prize also reserve the right to examine the untouched images on their shortlist to determine whether the amount of postproduction affects their choice.
5. Images should be submitted in JPEG format in the same size and resolution as they were taken - no change to size or resolution should be made. File names should comprise the category, competitor number and photographer's name, e.g. WA_15_JoeBloggs.jpg, CU_15_JoeBloggs.jpg, etc. If downloaded straight from a card, they will be renamed and rotated as applicable in Photoshop by the organisers.

6. Original, unchanged images must be kept on the card and the card brought to the evening event. For all winning and runner-up images, including Best Beginners, the original, unchanged image will be downloaded by the organisers at the end of the evening to ensure that they were taken on the competition day and have not been changed other than as allowed by the rules.

7. Submitted entries will be projected later in the evening at the Hotel Mount Batten and judged by the audience present. At the same time the winner of the grand prize will be chosen from all entries in the Close-Up, Wide-Angle and Animal Portrait categories by an independent panel of judges.

8. BSoUP reserves the right to publish winning images both in the society magazine and on the website. Winning images may also be used in future promotional material such as magazine publications for the event royalty free, but copyright remains with the photographer.

9. The organisers' decision on any matters arising from these rules shall be final.
PRIZES, TROPHIES AND INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

A total of 4 trophies and 11 individual awards will be awarded.

1. All entries in the Close-Up, Wide-Angle and Animal Portrait competition categories will be eligible for the grand prize of a 7-day liveboard holiday for two in the Maldives (exclusive of flights and taxes) courtesy of Maldives Scuba Tours, which will be selected by an independent panel of judges.

2. The winning Close-Up image will receive the Sport Diver Trophy and an Olympus Mju Tough 8010 marine camera courtesy of Olympus UK.

3. The winning Wide-Angle image will receive the Alan James Digital Image Trophy and a Mju Tough 8010 marine camera courtesy of Olympus UK.

4. The winning Animal Portrait image will receive the BSoUP Trophy and a Mju Tough 8010 marine camera courtesy of Olympus UK.

5. The runner up in the above three categories will receive a copy of the 2009 edition of Dive Atlas of the World by Jack Jackson, donated by New Holland Publishers.

6. The winning Humorous image will receive the AP Valves Trophy and a Buddy BCD donated by AP Valves

7. The overall Best Beginner will receive a choice of a canvas print of one of their images or a free place on a one-day course run by Maria Munn of Ocean Visions.

8.. The best beginner in each category will receive a copy of the book ‘Underwater Photography for Beginners’ by Maria Munn, donated Maria Munn

Sponsorship for running costs of the competition is being provided by Sport Diver magazine
INDIVIDUAL TROPHIES

1. The winner of the grand prize will receive an acrylic trophy.

2. The winner and runner-up in each category, excluding Humorous, will receive individual acrylic trophies.

3. The winner of the Humorous category will receive an individual acrylic trophy.

4. The Best Beginner in each of the Close-Up, Wide Angle and Animal Portrait categories, and the overall Best Beginner will receive individual acrylic trophies.
TIMETABLE SUMMARY

Wednesday 23rd June

Deadline for voluntary advance registration for the Splash-In.

Deadline to book Saturday evening Buffet meal tickets.

Friday 2nd July

20:30-22:00
Participants register their digital cards in the Hotel Mount Batten bar.

Saturday 3rd July

16.30-18:00
Digital entries at Hotel Mount Batten


19:00-20:00

Buffet meal

20:30-21.15

Projection of images and judging at Hotel Mount Batten

22.15

Announcement of results and presentations of prizes


SPONSORS

BSoUP extends its thanks to Maldives Scuba Tours, Olympus UK, AP Valves, Ocean Visions, New Holland Publishers and Sport Diver.

BSoUP also extend its thanks to Alan James Photography, Sport Diver and AP Valves who have each provided trophies for the competition.