British Underwater Photographer of the Year “Out Of The Blue” Featured Image Credit: Nick Blake / UPY 2017
With the Oscars just around the corner, and BAFTAs and Grammy awards having been handed out just last week, we’d like to take some time to congratulate the winners of this year’s international Underwater Photographer Of The Year 2017, an equally important achievement in our opinions.
Without further ado, let’s start at the top! The overall winner of the 2017 UPY award is…
French photographer Gabriel Barathieu!
As Peter Rowlands, judge and chairman of the contest, put it, “Vibrant contrasting colours, detailed delicate textures and a perfect pose. Add the right choice of lens for the situation and they all combine to produce a Champion.”
And a champion it certainly is!
Next up is Argentinian photographer Horacio Martinez, the “Up and coming Underwater Photographer of the Year”!
Martinez recalls that this was his first photographic workshop in “liveaboard-based photo workshop” in the Red Sea, and what a shot! He noted that Oceanic White Tip Sharks are “anything but shy”, but this one was beautifully captured alone in the wide open sea.
For the Wide Angle category, we have winner Ron Watkins’ “One in a Million”!
“What’s in that photo,” you might ask? Well, amongst a sea of moon jellyfish, Watkins really did find one in a million— spotting the beautiful lion’s mane jellyfish in the center which set it apart from the others, as this picture did to be called “a worthy winner” by judge Alex Mustard.
Conveniently after the winner of Wide Angle shots, we have the winner of the “Macro” category!
The Hong Kong-based winner was on a blackwater dive in Anilao, and found a mantis shrimp larvae (on the left) obviously scoping out it’s much tinier prey, and getting ready for a snack.
The next one isn’t quite of a living subject, but certainly one that’s captivating! Or… previously capsized. In the category… Wrecks.
Judge Martin Edge quickly noted how amazing the “split shot” technique used was for this shipwrecked shot. The Louilla has been stationary over the top of Gordon Reef near Sinai since 1981, and the time and deterioration since then definitely shows!
From Canadian photographer Qing Lin, we have the winner of the Behavior category!
At first all you notice are three smiley clown fish at home with their anemone! But what you may not have seen, were the parasitic isopods that are hanging out just inside of the mouths of the clown fish!
From Ifj. Lőrincz Ferenc in Hungary, the winner of Portrait!
Whoa! All up close and personal with a bat fish! Ferenec recalls that they were photographing a large school of them in Shark Rafeen, Rash Mohamed National Park in Egypt— trying to get the perfect shot, while dodging the occasional divers that might swim past. But he cleverly used a rock that the fish were using as a “cleaning station” to sneak a pretty amazing picture!
Another pretty up-close shot is one by Jenny Strömvoll in Mozambique, the winner of the Compact category!
This one’s of a whip goby who looks like he totally knows your darkest secret. Or maybe that’s just the fact that Strömvoll managed to get into his private space, even for a moment, to take this picture with unique bug-eye lens.
These aren’t all of the winners, of course. Just like any other award show, there were many categories and many winners, but each ranking photo was incredibly stunning in its own way. Feel free to check them out at the Underwater Photographer of the Year site’s list of results!