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2008 Reef check Photo contest

Meet our judges

   
Bonnie Pelnar Bonnie Pelnar

Bonnie has been taking pictures underwater for over 20 years. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin and went to work in computer graphics immediately after. Realizing that she was a scuba addict, she left her corporate career to start Under Watercolours, doing marketing, design, photography and all types of promotion for the scuba industry.

Her travels have taken her to the most exotic dive destinations in the world including Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Irian Jaya, Australia, Fiji, Philippines, Africa, Galapagos, the Amazon, Socorro, Palau, Micronesia, Hawaii, and all over the Caribbean and Mexico.

She is the author of "The Digital Workflow For Underwater Photographers" which can be found at www.TheUnderwaterPhotographer.com. Bonnie hosts underwater photography workshops at tropical destinations around the world and has been a judge in the LAUPS and NCUPS underwater photography international competiitions.


Dan Gotshall

Dan Gotshall

Dan Gotshall is a marine biologist with 34 years research experience with The California Department of Fish and Game. He retired in 1988.

Dan is also a professional underwater photographer; his photos have appeared in numerous books, magazines and newspapers; and have also been used in displays at aquariums and museums.

His publications include over 50 scientific reports on Pacific Coast fishes and invertebrates. Dan has also authored and co-authored eight books on marine life.

Dan and his wife, Ann, were co-owners of the publishing company Sea Challengers, Inc. based in Monterey, California for 30 years.

In 2007, after selling the publishing company, he returned to work for the California Department of Fish and Game part-time to help identify and quantify invertebrates encountered during ROV surveys of the newly established Marine Protected Areas in Central California.


David Fleetham

David Fleetham

David Fleetham is one of the most published underwater photographers in the world.  He began diving and photographing underwater in 1976 and has been in Hawaii since 1986.  For the first ten years he photographed in the cold, but rich waters of British Columbia, Canada, and worked as a PADI Instructor and USCG Certified boat captain in various dive businesses in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii.  From Hawaii, David has been on assignments to, Indonesia, The Galapagos Islands, South Africa, The Bahamas, Micronesia, Australia, the Sea of Cortez, the Red Sea, the Socorro Islands, numerous locations in the South Pacific, and back to the cold waters of British Columbia.

David's photographs have been published around the globe, with well over one hundred magazine covers to date. In 1991 his photograph of a sandbar shark appeared on the cover of LIFE. It is the only underwater image to ever be published on the cover. His award winning work has been published by National Geographic (he has done several assignments for The NGS), The Cousteau Society, and every North American diving publication. Galleries and agents in over 50 countries reproduce David’s images thousands and thousand of times each year.  The American Museum of Natural History, The Smithsonian Museum, The North Carolina Museum of Natural History, The London Zoo, Hong Kong Museum, The Maui Ocean Center, The Waikiki, Vancouver, Monterey Bay, New Jersey State, Ripley’s and the Aquarium of the Americas all display his work.

David is an founding member of The Ocean Artists Society, whose members include James Cameron, Wyland, David Doubilet and Al Giddings.

David photographs exclusively Canon EOS Digital SLR camera's, in Ikelite housings, with twin Ikelite Substrobes.

For more information or to browse David’s searchable database go to - www.davidfleetham.com




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