Marvel at beauty of underwater world in photo contest
For photographers who love diving and want to showcase the beauty of worlds underneath our oceans, the 15th “TDEX Underwater Photo Contest” is accepting entries from both amateur and professional photographers of any nationality, with cash prizes worth 230,000 baht in total on offer.
Held by the NCC Exhibition Organizer with the aim to promote scuba diving tourism and to raise awareness of marine conservation, this year’s competition focuses on “The Treasure” concept and entries should portray the beauty of underwater worlds in Thailand or around the world to reflect that all marine life is a valuable treasure.
All images must be taken between Jan 1, 2017 and Sept 9 of this year using digital cameras under any of the three categories — Open Macro (unrestricted camera model), Open Wide Angle (unrestricted camera model), and Compact (a camera that cannot change lens).
However, diving to get the best shot in water is far from easy and Sirachai Arunrugstichai, the winner of last year’s photo contest, has suggested that interested contestants should have enough diving skill and experience to avoid unexpected dangers while they take photos.
For those eyeing prizes, Sirachai recommended that they focus on uniqueness in their photos and that their storytelling be fresh and different from the winning photos of previous years.
“Uniqueness doesn’t mean that photos can’t have anything similar to other photos,” said Sirachai. “Rather, they should show something unique and outstanding, for example, new techniques of photography or new angles.”
The winner of the Open Macro and Open Wide Angle categories will receive 35,000 baht each and the first and second runner-up of both categories will get 20,000 and 10,000 baht, respectively.
Meanwhile, the winner of the Compact category will be awarded 30,000 baht while the first and second runner-up will take home 15,000 and 10,000 baht, respectively.
Each category also offers an honourable mention prize worth 5,000 baht while the last category has a special honourable prize reserved for Thai contestants only offering 5,000 baht in cash and a scuba lamp worth more than 16,000 baht.
Each contestant can submit no more than five entries. The winning photos will be exhibited at the “Thailand Dive Expo 2020”, which will take place at Bitec, Bang Na-Trat Road, on Oct 1-4.
The submission deadline is Sept 9. Application forms and entries in JPG or TIFF format, with at least 200 dpi, should be uploaded to Dropbox or Google Drive and the link should be sent to tdex@nccexhibition.com. Alternatively, they can be written on a CD and sent to NCC Exhibition Organizer by post.