The Winners Of The 2018 Underwater Photographer Of The Year Contest Will Take Your Breath Away

Velvet swimming crabs, with their red eyes and blue pincers are a popular subject. This one caught my eye not because it was in itself photogenic, but because it was hunkered down on a rocky reef dominated by vase sea squirts (Ciona intenstinalis). Whilst these sea squirts are common enough in sea lochs, in this particular spot they were really clean and about as abundant as I can ever remember seeing them. So, for an animal which mostly tries to be relatively inconspicuous, this one had failed pretty miserably. I was very fortunate as the visibility was good enough for me to back off with the 50mm macro lens so that I could take this 'view' including the crab, rather than simply take its portrait.

Interacting with sea lions is a great experience, they are curious and playful with divers. In this picture we can see an endemic sea lion from Australia who was having fun standing on the sand posing in front of my camera. The conditions that day were excellent for making the image with the sun's rays piercing the surface.

When I originally booked my surf trip to Fiji, I didn't realize how close Tonga was. I had always wanted to go to swim with the whales so I made a last minute adjustment to my flight and jumped over. Everyone I talked to strongly advised against going to Tonga without a guide lined up but I figured a bad day swimming with whales was better than going back home. As luck would have it I found a group that was leaving early. I was able to take their spot on a boat with just one other diver and it was just us hanging with this mom and her calf. The calf was a wild one, breaching and tail slapping all over the place. I love this photo because it looks like mom is giving the baby a talking to about straying too far from her.

Evening, anchored in the lagoon on the motoryacht that hosts us, lights on at the stern, suddenly a great whale shark appears from the obscurity of the seafloor, completely surrounded by remore.Immediately I take my derailment with my camera and slide slowly into water. I begin to take many photographs of this beautiful animal made even more fascinating by the remors that keep him company. It continues to swim around the boat in search of plankton, giving the impression of a large spaceship traveling with its guests.

I have been visiting Kootenay Lake, and spending time on its rocky beaches, for the past 5 years. During these years, I have spent a few evenings trying to capture an over-under that showed the beauty of this wonderful mountain lake with clear mountain skies. To-date, the skies have yet to be clear on a night while I was shooting! In the summer of 2017, when this photo was taken, there were a number of forest fires burning in the region which provided the misty and beautiful pink hue to the skies.

Part of the joy of diving is coming across the unexpected. A dive at Gilbert Goudge Guddle in Loch Hourn gave gave my first (and, so far, only) opportunity to dive amongst a large aggregation of moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) in relatively clear water. The swarming mass of pulsating animals, set against the striking emerald green water of the sea loch was quite hypnotic. Although I was set up with a macro lens, I wanted to try to take an image that showed the density of the animals and conveyed the feeling of being amongst them. Looking upwards, animals in the water column were silhouetted against the light from the surface, whilst my single flash enabled me to pick out some of the colour in the individual closest to me. I took several images but this is the one that gave me what I was looking for.

I shot this photo in Yakushima Japan,there is lot’s of rock pools, and many blenny living inside.In fact, I specifically went there to take reflected photo of blenny there.Photography in a rock pool is a very interesting experience, you must know the tide time there,and reflex photographs can be taken only at low tide. Because only at this time, the water surface closest to blenny to form a reflection. When I was taking this photo,a bubble that may have been released from photosynthesis by algae floated near the blenny,and it seems to be looking at the bubble. In order to keep the surface calm, I held my breath, kept myself still, took this picture. I am so happy to record this interesting moment.

The pristine reefs around the Jardines de la Reina on the south coast of Cuba are littered with colourful corals and sponges. On this particular dive I had chosen to shoot macro and I slowly passed over the reef looking for all manor of small critters to use as potential subjects. I was lucky enough to come across this small juvenile grouper hiding within a pink sponge. Although a common fish on the reef, the pink sponge made a perfect background, so I opened my aperture to blur away the detail in the sponge and waited patiently for the fish to turn and look straight down the barrel. A few frames later, I had my shot.

Diving with a manta ray one is always full of emotions. One of the best places in the world to dive with them is the Maldives. You can even meet them on a night dive just off the back of the boat. The manta come to feed and do some looping just at the surface. It is just fantastic !

The nudibranch (Flabellina bostoniensis) was spotted making its way across a kelp frond in the shallows of Loch Fyne. The simple kelp background interspersed with small white worm casts made for a pleasing picture. The lighting effect was enhanced with a home-made bottle snoot on my flash gun to help render a dark background and leave my subject in the spotlight. This species is quite large for a British sea slug at around 3cm long. The somewhat pastel colours and long cerata make it one of the prettier species in my opinion. Accurate focus to ensure both rhinophores were sharp, together with careful composition and the shot proved straightforward enough to execute.

During a dive on the Manacles I came across a Painted topshell on a furry-looking kelp blade. This fluffy growth is actually a hydroid, made up of zigzag strings of tiny organisms. Both subjects are somewhat unremarkable but I thought there was potential for a simple, graphic shot, using the hydroids to create a textured background. I angled the strobes in towards the camera to create a very shallow beam, allowing the light to reach the shell and hydroids but keeping the drab brown kelp in darkness. The strands of hydroid lit up rather nicely, allowing the colourful topshell to ‘pop’ from its delicate lacy backdrop.

When I was shooting this nudibranch I was focusing on it's behaviour to get just the right shot. While this happened a moray eel suddenly appeared out from the blue behind the nudi. I was shocked for a while but decided it would be a great composition. As a few minute flew by to my surprise another nudi appeared right behind the other one maybe to mate. Having both nudi's and a moray eel was a double surprise for me. I then decided to wait a while longer for the nudi to be in frame with the moray eel roaring behind. It took about 30 minutes to get this shot and it was well worth it.

Despite appearances, these two Tompot Blennies are not kissing but engaged in a ferocious battle over mating rights. The British summer is mating season amongst Tompots and competition is fierce. I went diving under Swanage Pier in search of these charismatic fish and was delighted to encounter one with the ornate, blue facial markings designed to attract a partner. To my surprise and wonder, he was soon joined by another male and they started tussling. At one point, the dust settled and they remained motionless, jaws locked together, just long enough for me to capture this image. It was a very fortunate encounter and I am delighted to be able to share it through this photo.

Having been a free diving underwater photographer for 8 years, I swim many hours, every week looking for uncommon subjects to shoot. My preference is pictures made under the surface with reflections . A lot of creatures (mainly juveniles) are found there day and night looking for spots (floating sargassums, flowers, leaves and miscellaneous objects) on which to stay. This picture shows 3 blennies that gather by the dozen under a sheltered spot. In this image, they are hiding under a floating hibiscus flower.

Mid September, the perfect season to get whales in Polynesia, having a rest after their great migration...A sandbank in the middle of the lagoon of a peaceful island accessible by kayak... After close to 2 hours, to wait for the right time, all the actors were finally in a row for the shot. Sharks and rays belong to the same family despite their differences. A curious sting ray is showing off, creating a perfect foreground, requiring a focus on her (autofocus continuous AF-C with 51 points on my camera). But I wanted sharp sharks to create a good background, so needed at least f/8 but not too close without artificial light in order to avoid having to turn ISO up (I hate noise on pictures). A full frame with a wide angle lens allowed me to realise the composition

I had been under Swanage pier for over an hour, I was getting cold and making my way back towards the entry steps. A little before getting back to the harbour wall there was a piece of the old pier with a hollowed out end. My eye was caught by movement within, a multitude of very small creatures moving fast to & fro. I had little time available and I fired off a few shots hoping the Nikon focusing would do its job. I had no idea what I had captured until I downloaded the images for review. I cannot say precisely what it is other than saying it is larval forms of a marine critter. I had a slow shutter speed dialled into the camera but the dark scene was frozen by the light from the flashguns. This is definitely a subject I would like to return to.

The concept of the picture has been developed on two halves/layers. A half below - radial inside lightening with four flashes wired together. The difficulty was in the upper half, that is, to give the correct position of the three tec-divers with scooters, and to expire the bubbles approximately at the same time. Not to disturb the sediment, there was only one chance to get this shot. As for me, a great team work!

Shark behaviourist Ms. Cristina Zenato has been studying Caribbean Reef Sharks near Freeport in The Bahamas for over 24 years The unique bond between her and the sharks allows her to get really close to them without putting them into tonic immobility and this has been helping many scientists, photographers and conservationists better understand and protect this beautiful species. Unlike in the movies, sharks in fact seldom attack humans on purpose and humans are not on their menu at all, on the contrary countless sharks are killed by humans just for their fins. Without these ancient animals the ocean will be completely different, and it will eventually become a disaster for mankind.

Last year we spent two weeks diving out of Doune in Knoydart and carried out many of our dives in Lochs Nevis and Hourn. On one dive, in Loch Hourn, we were working our way up rocky ledges whose shallow vertical faces were covered with masses of brittlestars and plumose anemones. Amongst them was this fissure with an absolute abundance of fried egg anemones cascading down it. All were fully open with their delicate tentacles extended and their orange discs displayed. Patches of pink encrusting algae below them added colour too. Where space allowed writhing brittlestars added textural detail into a quite enchanting scene. The dive site is rather aptly known as ‘Pixie Gardens’. As I was using an entirely new camera type and system with wide angle for the first time on this trip I was more than happy with the results.

The German ship Klaus Oldendorf went down in 1942 after hitting a mine. Today she is a very interesting wreck at 30 m depth to the deck. This picture was actually already planned on the deck of the dive boat. We were a team of three and all had been to the wheel before. We went through the photo plan thoroughly. First we took pictures with a top light (torch) and then with backlight. I took pictures with both flash and no flash and liked this one without flash more. It was important to balance the light correctly as I wanted to have the natural faint green glow in the background. This picture is a panorama of two images.