No I am not the winner. I have ranked 13 out of 139 people who submitted 459 photographs. The competition was held by Slovenian edition of Digital Camera Magazine. I have submitted 3 photos from my recent travels (one from Cambodia - ”Brothers”, one from Hawaii – “Friendly Shark” and one from Canary islands – “Surfing” which ended on 13th place). My personal favorite was not “Surfing”, but anyway I am pleased with the results. Congrats to all other contestants. Here is the link to 37th edition of Digital Camera.

“Surfing”

Canon has announced the development of a firmware update for its EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR. The new firmware is expected to be made available for download in the first half of 2010.

Press release:

London, 20 October 2009 – Canon today announces that it is currently developing a firmware update to the EOS 5D Mark II to enable the recording of high definition 1080p video at 24 and 25fps. The decision to develop new firmware to support these features has been taken following feedback received from cinematographers and photographers.

Introduced in September 2008, the multi award-winning EOS 5D Mark II was the first DSLR product to offer full frame 1080p HD video recording, opening up a multitude of new creative possibilities for photo journalists, news photographers and amateur filmmakers. Since then, Canon has continued to develop its groundbreaking EOS Movie functionality, firstly with the firmware update to the EOS 5D Mark II that enabled manual exposure control, and more recently by introducing a choice of video recording frame rates with the EOS 7D and EOS-1D Mark IV.

Canon currently expects the firmware update to be made available during the first half of 2010. An announcement regarding details of the update and its availability will be made closer to the release date.

Canon has announced the long-awaited successor to the EOS-1D Mark III. The EOS-1D Mark IV features a totally new 45-point autofocus system that’s claimed to fix all the issues reported with its predecessor, and has been extensively tested by professionals prior to launch. The new model also sports 10 fps continuous shooting, a new 1.3x crop (APS-H) 16.1 megapixel CMOS sensor and 1080p HD video capture. Like the recently announced Nikon D3S, the EOS-1D Mark IV pushes the sensitivity barrier with a top rating of ISO 102,400.

• Canon EOS 1D Mk IV – video by Vincent Laforet
• Canon EOS 1D Mk IV – specifications
• Canon EOS 1D Mk IV – sample images and video
• More info

Mauna kea means “white mountain” in the Hawaiian language, a reference to its summit being regularly covered by snow in winter. The peak of Mauna Kea is 4,207 m above sea level but 10,203 m above its base on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. It is the world’s tallest mountain by this measure, taller than Mount Everest, which is the highest mountain above sea level.

Mauna Kea is in the post-shield stage of volcanic evolution, having made the transition from the shield stage about 200,000 to 250,000 years ago. At that time, its appearance was probably quite similar to that of its neighbor Mauna Loa today, a smooth shield volcano with a large summit caldera. Following the transition, eruptions became more explosive in character, resulting in the formation of numerous overlapping cinder cones which eventually filled and completely obscured the caldera. These cinder cones now form the peaks at the summit of Mauna Kea, with several of them exceeding 13,500 feet (4,100 m) in elevation. After several hundred thousand years of slowly building itself up by volcanic activity, the mountain’s height is slowly decreasing now as its massive weight depresses the Pacific seafloor beneath it.

Snowfall often occurs at elevations above 3,400 m during the period from November through March. During particularly cold and wet winters, which are usually linked to La Niña, a snowpack several feet (1 m) deep may remain in the summit region above 4,000 m for weeks or months. This permits skiing and other snow-play activities on the slopes of the cinder cones.

The summit of Mauna Kea has been a celestial observatory since ancient times and is considered to be one of the best astronomical sites in the world. For this reason it is home to many of the world’s leading astronomical observatories. The summit is above approximately 40% of Earth’s atmosphere and 90% of the water vapor, allowing for exceptionally clear images of the night sky. Additionally, the peak is well above the inversion layer, which leads to approximately 300 clear nights per year. (Source: Wikipedia)

The thing that fascinated me the most was that you can go swimming in the Pacific and about 2 hours later you are standing on top of Mauna Kea about 4207 m higher with temperatures well below freezing and yea if you have brought your skis along you could go skiing.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is located on “The Big Island” of Hawaii. It displays hundreds of thousands of years of volcanism, migration and evolution – processes that thrust a bare land from the sea and clothed it with complex and unique ecosystems and a distinct Ancient Hawaiian culture. Kīlauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, and Mauna Loa, the most massive, offer scientists insights on the birth of the Hawaiian Islands and visitors’ views of dramatic volcanic landscapes. The park includes 1,348 square kilometers of land. The park encompasses diverse environments that range from sea level to the summit of the earth’s most massive volcano, Mauna Loa at 13,677 feet (4,169 m). Climates range from lush tropical rain forests, to the arid and barren Kaʻū Desert.