Marine Life Photo Contest Ends This Week

By Vanessa Wolf

No competition here. My best Lanai spinner dolphin photo is pretty crappy. Photo by Vanessa Wolf

You know that amazing Hawaiian Monk Seal shot you snapped?

Well, it’s not quite worth cold, hard cash, but it could earn you an annual pass to the Maui Ocean Center and a photo eco tour with Photo Safari Hawaii. Worse things have happened.

The Maui Ocean Center’s third annual “I Love Marine Life” photo contest is open to everyone, but the last day to submit an entry is by 5 p.m. this Thursday, Aug. 15.

The “I Love Marine Life” photo contest has two categories; Judges’ Winner, selected by a panel of judges from Maui Ocean Center, and Peoples’ Choice Winner, where guests to the aquarium will vote on their favorite photograph.

Photos will be displayed on the glass wall in the aquarium’s gift shop plaza for guests to view and choose a winner via ballot.

This contest is limited to one photograph per person which must be submitted by the original photographer.

Photo entries must include a marine animal and be taken at Maui Ocean Center or in and around Maui waters and all submissions must be 300 dots per inch resolution.

Listen up, all you Photoshopping masters: minor digital enhancements are permitted, but images that have been significantly modified or appear unnatural will be disqualified.

The permitted modifications allowed are cropping, rotation as long as the rectangle format is maintained, resizing as long as the aspect ratio is maintained, red-eye removal and spot editing.

Also permitted are the one-step enhancements offered in photo editing programs such as: “Auto Levels,” “Quick Fix,” and “AutoFix.”

What does that mean you can’t do? Add borders, watermarks, add or replace elements in the image, or use artistic filters. Photos will be disqualified from the contest if you do any of this stuff, so don’t do it.

You can submit your entries via a 4×6 to 5×7 print directly to the aquarium. You can also email a 300 dpi JPEG no larger than 2MB to [email protected] with the subject heading ‘Photo Contest Submission.” Include your name and phone number.

The Maui Ocean Center will announce the winners of the contest the week of Aug. 19 on Facebook, Twitter and their website.

There will be two grand prize winners who will each receive the aforementioned Annual Journey Pass to the Maui Ocean Center and a photo eco tour with Photo Safari Hawaii.

Eight finalists will receive a One-Day Journey Pass to Maui Ocean Center.

You have over 100 hours left to pull this off.

Get out and there, find some marine life and take some pictures already.

Have an idea for a fun, funny or thought-provoking story or topic? Get in touch: we want to hear from you. – Vanessa (@mauinow.com)