Best of Show – Brook Peterson
Bluewater Photo has announced the winners of the 5th Annual SoCal Shootout.
With excellent conditions, their highest number of participants and overall great photographers this year made for an intense competition with some really fantastic entries. In the end, the best in show prize went to Brook Peterson with a stunning sea lion behavior shot. Ben Hofilena and Christopher Borel took first place in the Open Wide and Mirrorless Wide Angle categories respectively with colorful, fish filled photos from our local Oil Rigs.
New categories for this year, Mirrorless Wide Angle and Mirrorless Macro, were extremely successful with many entries showcasing the beauty of the California waters. In addition, the Shootout continued to have a strong video competition with Todd Kortte taking first place in the edited video category with his stunning edit of bait-fish schooling among the oil rigs.
Compact shooters continued to amaze with incredible kelp forest scenes from Compact Wide winner Ty Oliver, and Compact Macro winner Michal Ross.
See below for the full list of winners, all winning photos can be found at:
http://www.bluewaterphotostore.com/2015-socal-shootout-results
The 5th Annual SoCal Shootout weekend took place September 18th-20th, 2015 with participants shooting all over the Southern California waters.
Entries were judged by professional underwater photographers Mark Strickland, Andy Sallmon and Bluewater Photo owner Scott Gietler.
Over $20,000 in prizes were awarded to the winners with top sponsors offering a housing from Aquatica Digital, strobes from Sea & Sea and a lighting package from iTorch. We had several local trip prizes from sponsor Channel Islands Dive Adventures. Bluewater Travel will be organizing the winner’s trips from their international sponsors. These included the Rocio del Mar liveaboard, Aiyanar Beach & Diving Resort in the Philippines, the Cortez Club & La Concha in La Paz, and Maluku Divers in Indonesia.
A full list of sponsors can be located at http://www.bluewaterphotostore.com/socal-shootout#sponsors
1st Place, Open Portrait – Cindy Shaw
Winners:
Best in Show: Brook Peterson
Open Wide Angle:
First Place: Ben Hofilena
Second Place: Adam Martin
Third Place: Jim Argonick
Honorable Mention: Nayan Savla
Honorable Mention: Jim Argonick
Open Macro:
First Place: Helen Brierley
Second Place: Christopher Borel
Third Place: Brook Peterson
Honorable Mention: Craig Hoover
Honorable Mention: Craig Hoover
Open Behavior:
First Place: Brook Peterson
Second Place: Nayan Savla
Third Place: Sandra Dildine
Fourth Place: Brook Peterson
Honorable Mention: Erik Lucas
Honorable Mention: Steve Fitzpatrick
Open Portrait:
First Place: Cindy Shaw
Second Place: Craig Hoover
Third Place (tie): Tiffany Poon
Third Place (tie): Desmond Ho
Honorable Mention: Adam King
Honorable Mention: Joseph Jenkins
Mirrorless Wide Angle:
First Place: Christopher Borel
Second Place: Christopher Borel
Third Place: Kelly Teich
Honorable Mention: Renee Capozzola
Honorable Mention: Mark Judd
Mirrorless Macro:
First Place: Desmond Ho
Second Place: Bruce Sudweeks
Third Place: Melvin Moncrieff
Honorable Mention: Patrick Smith
Honorable Mention: Melvin Moncrieff
Compact Wide Angle:
First Place: Ty Oliver
Second Place: Ashley Lewis
Third Place: David Guth
Honorable Mention: Renee Capozzola
Honorable Mention: Camilla Hall
Compact Macro:
First Place: Michal Ross
Second Place: Brian Herold
Third Place: Sandra Dildine
Honorable Mention: David Guth
Honorable Mention: Sandra Dildine
Edited Video:
First Place: Todd Kortte
Second Place: Daniel McGanty
Third Place: Robert Arnold
Unedited Video:
First Place: Andre Labuda
Second Place: Daniel McGanty
Third Place: Hank Kratzer
Honorable Mention: Richard Hofmann
Honorable Mention: Vanessa Homyak
About the SoCal Shootout:
The SoCal Shootout is an annual photography competition where some of Southern California’s most active underwater photographers strive to capture the best possible photos over a three day period. Major editing is not allowed, so the competition truly tests a photographer’s ability to capture stunning imagery in-camera. Bluewater Photo, Southern California’s only dedicated underwater photography center, sponsors the event along with many top underwater photography and scuba brands, international resorts and local dive boats – all of which are excited to support the Californian scuba diving community.
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