The Underwater Photographer of the Year organization just announced the winners of its annual worldwide competition. The British organization started the awards seven years ago. In 2020, before the pandemic, the competition drew 5,500 pictures from 500 photographers around the world. This year, because of travel restrictions, the entries were down a bit, with 4,200 images from photographers in 71 countries. Here’s a look at some of the winners:
The picture at top, Sunset Ray, was taken by Andy Schmid, a Swiss photographer. It won second place in the wide-angle category.
The overall winner was Rafael Fernandez Caballero’s shot, Dancing with the Giants of the Night, above, taken in the Maldives. A Spanish photographer, Caballero says he and his partner, Gador Muntaner, a shark researcher, jumped in the water to film one whale shark when it was attracted by the light from their boat. After a while, they counted 11 whale sharks surrounding them. “It was a unique moment that no one there had thought could even be possible,” he said.
Matty Smith, based in Australia, was named British Underwater Photographer of the Year for his shot of this great white taken in the Neptune Islands, South Australia. He named it A 3.5m Great White Curiously Approaches My Lens.
Dan Bolt won the British Waters Macro price for this image, called Best Buddies, that he took on Loch Carron. “Having my log macro lens on was an advantage as I could stand-off from the reef enough to get some light into their home so we could all see their somewhat bemused little faces,” he said.
Javier Murcia named this shot The Circle of Life, for the obvious reasons. It was a runner-up in the Behavior category. Read more:
http://underwaterphotographeroftheyear.com
