Check out the winning, highly commended and best of the other featured images from our Big Shot Bright and Beautiful underwater photography competition!
One of the many amazing things about life underwater is just how bright and colourful are so many of the ocean’s residents – shine a strobe on a reef, and it explodes into colour.
This issue’s Big Shots competition highlights this cavalcade of colour, with everything from neon nudibranchs to the delights of the ubiquitous anemonefish.
Our winning image by Michael Gallagher, from Australia, features one of the reef ’s most colourful characters, the parrotfish with an ethereal cleaner shrimp.
He wins a seven-night trip around the British Virgin Islands on the BVI Aggressor, (worth $3,495) courtesy of Aggressor
Adventures.
Highly commended are Michal Bazala’s joyful cenotes shot, Michal Štros’ striking boxer crab, Nur Tucker’s elegant anthias and Miguel Ramirez’s vibrant emperor shrimp. They receive a year’s print and digital subscription to DIVE.
The other entries published in DIVE win a year’s digital subscription – and many thanks to everyone who entered!
Keep your eyes open for the next Big Shot Competition and watch out for the upcoming Best of the Big Shots competition in the run-up to Christmas, where you, the reader, can choose the best images from each of our 2024 competitions!
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WINNER – DIVE’s Big Shot Bright and Beautiful
‘Parrotfish & Shrimp’ By Michael Gallagher
A bridled parrotfish and cleaner shrimp in the Saudi Arabian Red Sea.
Shot with: Canon 5DS with Canon 50mm macro lens, Hugyfot housing with 2 Inon Z-240 strobes; f16, 1/125, ISO 400
HIGHLY COMMENDED
‘Aquatic Autumn’ by Michał Bazała
Where the jungle meets the underworld in the threshold of a Mexican cenote.
Shot with: Nikon D7200, Tokina 10-17 at 10mm, Nauticam housing, Inon Z-330 strobes; f/6.7, 1/125, ISO 560
HIGHLY COMMENDED
‘Boxer Crab’ by Michal Štros
A boxer crab hiding under a leaf in Sidem, Bali, Indonesia.
Shot with: Canon 90D, Canon 100mm macro lens with SubSee +5 diopter, Ikelite housing, YS-D3 strobe, Marelux SOFT Lite snoot; f18, 1/125, ISO 200
HIGHLY COMMENDED
‘Surreal World’ by Nur Tucker
A macro double exposure of a flashing anthias in the Red Sea, Egypt.
Shot with: Vintage Helios 44 lens front element reversed, Nikon 105mm macro lens, Nikon D500 camera, Subal housing, Retra Pro strobes, beam restrictors; f2.8 , 1/1000, ISO 800
HIGHLY COMMENDED
‘Into the Flames’ by Miguel Ramirez
An emperor shrimp camouflaged in the gills of a Spanish dancer, Réunion Island.
Shot with: Nikon D500, Nikon 85mm lens, Hugyfot housing, 2 Inon Z-330 strobes, f11, 1/250, ISO 100
‘You Found Me’ by Lauren Wang
A yellow frogfish hiding in a coral in Lembeh Strait.
Shot with: Nikon D850, 105mm Nikon lens, 2 Retra Pro X strobes, Nauticam housing; f/5.0, 1/160, ISO 125
‘Gimme Shelter’ by Michael Gallagher
A pink anemonefish shelters in its closed-up anemone host, Palau, Micronesia.
Shot with: Canon 5D Mark 111, Canon 8-15mm fisheye lens and 1.4x Kenko teleconverter, Hugyfot housing with 2 Inon Z-240 strobes; f16, 1/100, ISO 400
‘Yellow Fusiliers’ by Mehmet Gungen
A school of yellowtail fusiliers shot at Batu Rufus, Raja Ampat, Indonesia.
Shot with: Nikon D850, Nikon 28-70mm lens, at 70mm, Nauticam WACP-1port, Retra Pro Max strobes; f/11, 1/10, ISO 50
‘Hidden Jewel’ by Catherine Holmes
A tiny Bargibant’s pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti) is seen here in its gorgonian home, Anilao, Philippines.
Shot with: Nikon D500, 105mm macro lens, Retra Pro strobes; f22, 1/250, ISO 100
‘Feast’ by Michal Štros
Two harlequin shrimp feeding on a starfish, Batu Niti, Bali.
Shot with: Canon 90D, Canon 100mm macro lens, Ikelite housing, YS-D3 strobe, Marelux SOFT Litebsnoot; f20, 1/200, ISO 200
‘Claws’ by Lauren Wang
The infamous American lobster being curious, Colony Beach, Maine, USA.
Shot with: Nikon D850, Nikon 60mm lens, Nauticam housing, 2 Sea&Sea YS DJ2 strobes f/10, 1/200, ISO 2500
‘Anemone’ by Wayne McWilliams
Inside an anemone. I loved the colours and shapes, Papua New Guinea.
Shot with: Nikon D200, Nikon 60mm macro lens, Nauticam housing, Inon Z-240 strobe; f27, 1/125, ISO 100
‘Bad Hair Day’ by Paul Eijkmans
Hairy squat lobster taken at the liberty wreck, Tulamben, Indonesia.
Shot with: Nikon Z7, Nikon 105 mmmacro lens; f/45, 1/160, ISO 100
‘Dancing in the Current’ by Michal Štros
Snoot lighting of two delicate white-tufted worms (Protula tubularia) billowing in the current, Kornati National Park, Croatia.
Shot with: Canon 80D, Canon 60mm macro lens, Ikelite housing, YS-D2 strobe, Retra LSD snoot; f20, 1/125, ISO 125
‘Ribbon Eel Portrait’ by Michael Gallagher
A ribbon eel poses perfectly in front of my underwater camera, Mauritius.
Shot with: Canon 5DS, Canon 50mm macro lens, Hugyfot housing, 2 Inon Z-240 strobes; f16, 1/200, ISO 400
‘Yellow City’ by Paul Eijkmans
Inside a yellow anemone, Bangka Island, Indonesia.
Shot with: Nikon Z7, Nikon 105mm, macro lens; f/32, 1/160, ISO 200
‘I’m Watching You’ by Catherine Holmes
A clownfish peeps out between the tentacles of its anemone home to watch a tiny cleaner shrimp dance around among the swaying tentacles in search of food, Dumaguete, Philippines.
Shot with: Olympus EM1 MK11, Olympus 60mm macro lens Inon Z330 strobes; f/13, 1/60, ISO200
‘Sun Burst’ by Jillanne McCarty
This sun coral colony radiates colour from the gloomy depths in Anilao, Philippines.
Shot with: Nikon D850, 105mm macro lens, Nauticam housing; f29, 1/250, ISO 100
‘Citrus’ by Morgan Riggs
Nudibranch on a vertical climb up some coral, Bangka Island, North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Shot with: Sony Alpha 7R III, Sony 90mm Macro lens, Nauticam housing, 2 x Sea & Sea YS-01 strobes; f.8, 1/360, ISO 320
Previous competition winners:
- DIVE’s Big Shot Caves, Caverns & Overhangs winners
- DIVE’s Big Shot Cephalopods winners
- DIVE’s Big Shot Kaleidoscope winners
- DIVE’s Big Shot Megafauna winners
