This is good news again. This month I have won the award "European Wildlife Photographer of the Year" in the Waterworld category. Another of my images was awarded with a "highly commended" prize i nthe same category. This contests takes place in Germany and my photos were selected among 7000 images from 24 different countries.
This is a good motivation to keep working hard in getting new images.
Last week I was awarded with the 2nd prize to the Best Portfolio during the MIDE dive show that takes place in Kuala Lumpur. For this photo contest I chose a selection of photos from tiny gobies to whales and ship wrecks. 2008 is being a great year so far, so keep my fingers crossed for some more !
Summer is finally here, in the North of Spain and conditions for diving are being great, with calm seas and relatively good visibility. I have been visiting some places where I hadn’t been diving for many years. Another day I´ll explain some differences I’ve noticed during these years. Under the right conditions and at the right time this place has a stunning light that can keep me underwater for more than two hours.
Wow, I like this May !
I have won the 2nd prize to the Best Collection of photos in the International Underwater Images Festival.
When I get the chance I´ll put the photos. I know, I always say the same thing… but this time I´ll put them, I promise.
I have made a 13 pages interview for a Chinese diving magazine and I have made the front cover photo (shown here). You can read the interview here http://www.magicsea.com/china/ . In case you are not fluent reading Chinese you should take a quick course and come back when you finish to click this link. OK… I´ll put the English version of the interview when I get the chance.
Update: The English translation is ready in that link, so you can skip the Chinese course now.
This is a happy entry ! I have won the first prize in the Wide Angle category of the 2008 Scuba Diving photo contest. This is the winning image. It was taken in El Hierro, one of the Canary Islands. I really liked that photo since the moment I took it, it was one of those moments when the stars align and the grouper came few inches away from the camera while my model was posing between the walls that form a spectacular crack in the reef.
Hey, that's me on the last photo !
After few weeks travelling in Mexico and California it's nice to be back home and go surfing. Waves were perfect, long and powerful. Water temperature is about 1º warmer than when I left, but it's sunny and feels much warmer than the actual 14ºC.
The guy who runs this site: http://www.olasdevizcaya.com took these photos.
I am back from this wonderful archipelago in the Mexican Pacific. The islands are 220 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas.
The trip was excellent with very good dives where I saw lots of mantas, sharks, whales, etc.
You can read a full trip report here:
And you can see all the photos from the trip directly in this link:
http://www.photography.magicsea.com/revillagigedo/
If you get half the fun viewing the photos than I had taking them I´ll be happy.
You may be reading this blog from the other side of the world. Well, the other side for me, because it is your side for you. You may be wondering why I live at this side of the world, when you live at that other side. Maybe because it’s beautiful? That’s a beautiful beach barely 40 minutes drive from my place. Actually the rocky mountain falling straight to the sea is one of the places where I had my first dives. The rocky cliff in the background is 1000’ (300m) high and, did I say it’s beautiful?. There are many other reasons why I like it here even if there are no coral reefs, water is freezing in the winter and fuel is outrageously expensive. I won’t go through all of them now, but basically it is a beautiful place where I can do fun things in company of good people.
Last week I went to Galicia, Northwest Spain, to teach an underwater photography course. The conditions of the sea were perfect, flat calm, which is not common in this part of the world. Weather was sunny, but cold and water temperature was only 13 C. which made the surface interval between dives very cold. However underwater I was pleased to see the amount of nudibranches and other colorful invertebrates that made good subjects for the student photographers.
The lessons started on Friday with a 2 hours lectures. On Saturday we dived in the morning and had a 6 hours lecture in the afternoon. On Sunday the schedule was similar. More information about these courses in http://www.cursosfotosub.com
I have been fascinated by Monkfish for a long time. Its out-of this-world look make this fish very special. A monkfish is basically a huge mouth on a huge head and a tiny body. It is a flat fish, very tasteful to eat and not that easy to find.
Few weeks ago a friend sent me an email to tell me that they have recently seen monkfish around a shipwreck which lays 36 meters (120 feet) below the surface, near Machichaco cape, not far from my place. I manage to organize a dive that same day and got my first photos of a monkfish:
