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Winners - Underwater Photography Contests

March 2016 Photo Contest Winner and Review

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WINNER CHOSEN AND REVIEW BY SCUBAVERSE.COM’S UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY EDITORS NICK & CAROLINE ROBERTSON-BROWN

WINNER: Wesley Oosthuizen

PHOTOLINK: http://www.scubaverse.com/contestants/the-ballet-of-sabellidae-2/

When judging any underwater photography competition, the first thing we do is ask of each image: Is it in focus? The main subject has to be pin sharp. Is it exposed correctly?

We then look at lighting (photography is all about light) and composition. Backscatter, hot spots of light, messy backgrounds all might see your image lose out.

Then there are other considerations that might get you knocked out of the first round: Was the image taken underwater? After all it is an underwater photography competition! Were any animals distressed or harassed to get the image? Was any environmental damage done to get the shot?

Once we have whittled out the images that do not pass these criteria, it is time to get down to picking a winner. A shot that makes us both go wow – I wish I had taken that!

March 2016

This month saw 34 entries into the competition and there were some lovely images. One of the toughest judging decisions is selecting the winner from both worthy macro and wide angle images.

Our favourites

Caroline

Tom St George’s sidemount cave diver is wonderfully lit with no overexposed areas on the cave walls, and makes me want to go diving there, which is a sign of a great diving photo.

Marcia Melton’s beautiful nudibranch, taken in Anilao, is lovely and sharp, with good use of Bokeh in the background.

Graham Owen’s diver at the prop is another shot that makes me want to be there – The Imperial Eagle in Malta

Cat Briggs’ images of the diver on Giannis D wreck is lovely. I really like the way the coral is lit so well, the diver positioning is good and you can just make out the wreck behind.

Wesley Oosthuizen’s shot of a feather-duster worm is gorgeous. The lighting is perfect and you can feel the current just by looking at this image. Super composition.

Jesse Alpert’s image of a school of scalloped hammerheads in the Galapagos Islands shows off these amazing sharks in silhouette, a shot that is getting rarer and rarer to get.

Sean Chin’s shark – so hard to get them head on like this, great texture in the sand and surface and the shark just pops out of the image.

Kate Jonker’s image of a school of big eyes caught my eye, because of the eye contact with these fish. If you see red – shoot it.

Christian Llewellyn’s BSA motorbike shot from the Thistlegorm is creative, using red off camera lighting. I love the way this red light comes through the spokes.

Caroline’s Top 4:

Christian’s motorbike; Graham’s Diver at the Prop; Sean’s Tiger Shark; Wesley’s Feather Duster Worm.

Nick

The motorbike on the Thistlegorm, by Christian Llewellyn, is a really nice shot and whilst it’s been done many times, the red backlighting and the white strobe lighting does give it a different feel. I think if the strobe lighting had been a bit softer, the rays coming off the spokes with the red light may have been more prominent and hence make the image even better.

I really love Wesley Oosthuizen’s shot of the feather duster worm. I think the spot lighting with a black background works really well and the feathers are beautifully clear.

Octopus by Pierluigi Peis – I think overall the lighting of the subject is excellent and the fact, the photographer has created the right angle to put the subject, against blue water works really well. However, the blurred foreground is all a bit too much of a distraction for my liking.

Jesse Alpert’s Hammerhead silhouette – classic shot taken looking up at a mass of hammerheads. Simple and effective, but a super shot.

Debbie Wallace’s balanced lighting shot of the shark against the Sun burst is really nicely done, but I’m distracted by the strange pose of the diver to the right of the image and the sun itself is overcooked.

Emeric DENIS’ Clownfish on the anemone – this is a nice image, but I’m distracted by the fussiness on the right hand side where the lionfish is hiding and the prominent lighting is coming from the right, when it should be coming from the left and illuminating the subject itself, the clownfish.

Michelle Taylor’s Shark and the fish burst – love this shot, although the silver fish are bit red due to the colour balance, but the composition is brilliant as the snappers disperse when the shark bursts through the middle of them.

David Niddam’s White frogfish – I love the angle on this one, but the eye is just not quite in focus. The image is slightly bull’s-eye, whereby the attempted focus of the subject is right in the middle of the image. I like the use of negative space and the way the image bokehs away from the focal point of the eye.

Graham Owen’s Diver at the prop – very nicely lit by strobes and the diver with the light. This balances the image cleverly as the diver is sitting in a good pose in the negative space.

Kate Jonker’s Clownfish in the bubble anemone – Everyone has a picture of a clownfish in an anemone, but I particularly like the way the subject was lit.

Cat Briggs’ Coral on the wreck with diver – the colour of the corals just pops out at you and the diver creates a really well balanced image. Personally, I would have cropped in just a tiny bit.

Sean Chin’s Tiger shark – super, head-on shot, which is difficult to capture; however, I think it would have been better had you brought the strobes higher up rather than illuminate the sand in front of you.

Kate Jonker’s Big Eyes shot on a dark black background – this is an almost brilliant shot of a really common subject. The angle, for me, is not quite right – it is a little bit tale dominant. I love the way they pop out from a black background, and whilst I think black backgrounds are being currently overused, the eye contact and colour make this a lovely image.

Kate Jonker’s Gobi on a whip coral – this image is well taken, and perfectly in focus. I just think that with a slight change of angle you may have led to the Gobi not been quite so buried in the coral. Yet another example of using black background to pop the subject.

Nick’s Top 4:

Cat’s Coral on the wreck with diver; Graham’s diver at the prop; Jesse’s hammerhead silhouette; Wesley’s feather duster.

Nick and Caroline go through the images separately and as you can see, whilst they agree broadly on the top 10 or so, when we get down to their favourite 4 images, only 2 make it into both their selections.

After much deliberations between our two judges….

Runner-up is Graham Owen with At the Prop (The prop of The Imperial Eagle in Malta. The Imperial Eagle served as a ferry amongst other things and was the sister ship to the Jacques Cousteau’s ship Calypso. It now rests at 46m and provides a fantastic dive site. The decks have largely rotted away leaving a skeletal wreck in places)

And the winner is…

The winner is Wesley Oosthuizen with The Ballet of Sabellidae (It’s always a pleasure to watch feather duster worms dance in tune with the motion of the water). Congratulations Wesley!

Both first and second place images stood out because of their great lighting.

Nick and Caroline (Frogfish Photography) are a married couple of conservation driven underwater photo-journalists and authors. Both have honours degrees from Manchester University, in Environmental Biology and Biology respectively, with Nick being a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, a former high school science teacher with a DipEd in Teaching Studies. Caroline has an MSc in Animal Behaviour specializing in Caribbean Ecology. They are multiple award-winning photographers and along with 4 published books, feature regularly in the diving, wildlife and international press They are the Underwater Photography and Deputy Editors at Scubaverse and Dive Travel Adventures. Winners of the Caribbean Tourism Organization Photo-journalist of the Year for a feature on Shark Diving in The Bahamas, and they have been placed in every year they have entered. Nick and Caroline regularly use their free time to visit schools, both in the UK and on their travels, to discuss the important issues of marine conservation, sharks and plastic pollution. They are ambassadors for Sharks4Kids and founders of SeaStraw. They are Dive Ambassadors for The Islands of The Bahamas and are supported by Mares, Paralenz, Nauticam and Olympus. To find out more visit www.frogfishphotography.com

Winners - Underwater Photography Contests

December 2022 Photo Contest Winner and Review

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WINNER CHOSEN AND REVIEW BY SCUBAVERSE.COM’S UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR NICK ROBERTSON-BROWN

WINNER: Basket star in the pure darkness by Arnaud Guillebert

Another great month full of wonderful underwater images!

When judging any underwater photography competition, the first thing I do is ask of each image: Is it in focus? The main subject has to be pin sharp. Is it exposed correctly?

I then look at lighting (photography is all about light) and composition. Backscatter, hot spots of light, messy backgrounds: all might see your image lose out.

Then there are other considerations that might get you knocked out of the first round: Was the image taken underwater? After all it is an underwater photography competition! Were any animals distressed or harassed to get the image? Was any environmental damage done to get the shot?

Once I have whittled out the images that do not pass these criteria, it is time to get down to picking a winner. A shot that makes me go wow – I wish I had taken that!


Three squid by Min seok Jeon: I love squid and this shot with three against a black background really stands out. I love the colours and shapes they create as they stretch across the frame.

Hippocampus guttulatus (Cuvier, 1829) by Marco Spoto: What a lovely scene. Great that you did not disturb the worm on taking this shot. I would have liked to have seen the subject isolated more though, losing the backscatter and seabed which can distact the eye.

Turtle in its coral garden by Claude Lespagne: What I like about this image is the snorkeler at the surface looking down on the scene. It shows that you do not have to be a diver to enjoy a stunning Red Sea scene like this one.

Ghost Goby by MichaelG: I love the colours, the expression on the goby’s face and most of all the texture of the coral. Lovely use of depth of field.

Hedgehog by Sofia Tenggrono: Great use of a snoot. You have lit up just enough of the environment to show us where this nudibranch lives, but still have highlighted the subject really well. The complimentary colours are lovely.

yellow cutie by Cedric Peneau: Lovely framing of a really cute little fish. The colours jump out from my screen.

REFLET by DIDIER PASQUINI: I like the motion in the tail and the reflection in this image of the biggest fish in the sea. I always like a bit more space in front of a fish when possible – but I know this will have been hard with a big Whale Shark.

Basket star in the pure darkness by arnaud.guillebert: This is more like a fine art image than the usual underwater imagery you see. Lovely lighting showing off the texture of this basket star.


After much deliberation by our judge….

The results

Winner: Basket star in the pure darkness by arnaud.guillebert

Runner-Up: yellow cutie by Cedric Peneau

Third: Ghost Goby by MichaelG

Highly Commended: Three squid by Min seok Jeon

Congratulations to those who were placed – there were a number of excellent images, and well done to all those that entered.


Scubaverse.com’s January 2023 Underwater Photo Contest is now open! Enter as many as three of your underwater photos here.

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Winners - Underwater Photography Contests

November 2022 Photo Contest Winner and Review

Published

on

WINNER CHOSEN AND REVIEW BY SCUBAVERSE.COM’S UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR NICK ROBERTSON-BROWN

WINNER: The Herd by Cedric Peneau

Another great month full of wonderful underwater images!

When judging any underwater photography competition, the first thing I do is ask of each image: Is it in focus? The main subject has to be pin sharp. Is it exposed correctly?

I then look at lighting (photography is all about light) and composition. Backscatter, hot spots of light, messy backgrounds: all might see your image lose out.

Then there are other considerations that might get you knocked out of the first round: Was the image taken underwater? After all it is an underwater photography competition! Were any animals distressed or harassed to get the image? Was any environmental damage done to get the shot?

Once I have whittled out the images that do not pass these criteria, it is time to get down to picking a winner. A shot that makes me go wow – I wish I had taken that!

Longimanus by night by Claude Lespagne: Of the three wonderful Oceanic Whitetip Shark images you entered this month, this is my favourite. The reflection on the surface is sublime and I love the way the pilot fish really catch the eye against a dark night sea.

Underwater doughnut shop? by Bill Passmore: The detail in this simple shot of a coral head is super. I love the title too!

Little frogfish, big pollution by Cedric Peneau: I always worry about images like this one. Who put that battery there? Was it a diver in order to get a shot? I hope not. What it does to well is show how tiny this beautiful frogfish is.

The Herd by Cedric Peneau: Wow! I love this shot, there is so much going on and yet the subject is still really strong in the frame.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Sofia Tenggrono: This image really caught my eye. The focus is not what we would usually expect, but because the body and the glittering edges are the subject, it still works.

GREAT ENCOUNTER by DIDIER PASQUINI: Lovely shot that tells a story. You can imagine being this snorkeler and have an encounter of a lifetime with the biggest fish in the sea. You can imagine this image in a brochure.

Below the surface by arnaud.guillebert: These shots are so difficult to get right. This is another shot that tells a story and could grace a diving magazine. Initially you see the main shark subject, but as you spend more time, you see all the other sharks in the background.


After much deliberation by our judge….

The results

Winner: The Herd by Cedric Peneau

Runner-Up: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Sofia Tenggrono

Third: Longimanus by night by Claude Lespagne

Highly Commended: Below the surface by arnaud.guillebert

Congratulations to those who were placed – there were a number of excellent images, and well done to all those that entered.


Scubaverse.com’s December 2022 Underwater Photo Contest is now open! Enter as many as three of your underwater photos here.

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