News
The Digital Shootout, the premier event on the underwater imaging calendar, returned to Little Cayman last month to celebrate its 20th anniversary! Full coverage of the event is now live.
This year’s workshop saw 60 guests from around the world join the staff of 20 for another exciting two weeks of amazing dives—courtesy of Little Cayman Beach Resort—as well as learning seminars, and inspirational presentations. Participants once again got to play with the latest and greatest cameras, housings, strobes, lights and accessories, as well as engage in some friendly competition for the chance to score some sweet prizes.
Check out the detailed press release below summarizing the various sections of the online coverage: Shootout Life, Gear Tests, and Contest Results. If you’re keen to reserve your spot for next year’s event in Little Cayman (June 15th–29th, 2024), you can already do that by heading over to the Digital Shootout registration page.
PRESS RELEASE
20 YEARS OF DIVE, SHOOT, LEARN, REPEAT
This year's Digital Shootout marked the 20th anniversary of this renowned event. WOW! 20 years of dive, shoot, learn and repeat, the perfect recipe for a working vacation for the underwater image-maker looking to level up! And there was no better place to celebrate it than Little Cayman Beach Resort!
Learning – The Core Mission of the Digital Shootout
This year’s event included over 25 seminars and workshops. Topics included fundamentals of photo and video, creative lighting, split shots, advanced video techniques, video editing techniques, visual storytelling, and more.
With a guest-to-staff ratio of 3:1, the Digital Shootout features more educators and staff than any other underwater photography workshop in the world. Among the teaching staff were Backscatter founder Berkley White, Backscatter CEO Jim Decker, Adobe Certified Expert Erin Quigley, Brazilian Emmy award-winning filmmaker Cristian Dimitrius, and others.
Seminars and education sessions are always a main draw of the Digital Shootout
Diving the Largest Fleet of Cutting Edge Cameras on Earth
No other underwater imaging event in the world has the amount of demo gear that is showcased each year at the Digital Shootout. Dozens of camera systems on-offer from Nauticam, Isotta and Backscatter, as well as strobes, lights and accessories to give you the tools needed to produce quality underwater images. And Pegasus Thruster brought their very popular tank-mounted DPVs for participants to zip up and down the reef.
See Sample Content from These Latest Cameras
Click an icon below or visit the Gear Tests page to see sample content and reviews from over 18 cameras, lenses, and more:
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The demo gear and staff of the 2023 Digital Shootout
A Day In The Life at the Digital Shootout
Experience the diving, the learning, and the camaraderie shared by this amazing group of passionate image-makers by checking out the Shootout Life section of the site:
Day In The Life at the Digital Shootout 2023 by Joel Penner
We Even Had a Contest with Sweet Prizes – See the Results
While the Shootout is a learning event with emphasis on improving underwater shooting and editing techniques, the event organizers, Backscatter Underwater Video & Photo and Under Exposures, manage to gather some very cool prizes to give away in the friendly competition.
This year's judging panel – Berkley White, Hergen Spalink, Todd Winner, Erin Quigley, Joel Penner, Jen Penner, Cristian Dimitrius, Davide Lombroso and Dan Baldocchi – had the difficult task of determining the merits of 12 submitted videos based on the criteria, "Would I share this video with my friends?" For still images, the judging was based on, "Would I hang this photo on my wall?" Nearly 400 images were submitted, making the judging process a daunting task, often resulting in heated debate and a little arm wrestling. In the end, this year’s highest honor, the Jim Watt award, was presented to William Ewing.
See the complete contest results and all photo and video submissions on the Contest Results page.
Jim Watt Best of Show Award – William Ewing
Wide Angle Traditional – John Obremski
Wide Angle Unrestricted – Andy MacLeod
Macro Traditional – Alex Glick
Macro Unrestricted – Amy MacLeod
Point & Shoot – Chris Nonell
Video Winner – Marteyne van Well
Join Us Next Year in Little Cayman
The Digital Shootout will be held again in Little Cayman from June 15–29, 2024.
Registration for the event is open at: https://www.thedigitalshootout.com/registration/
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