2016 Ocean Art Photo Competition
The winning images from the 6th Annual Ocean Art Underwater Photo Contest are now online. These images represent some of the best underwater photography of the year, and we highly recommend bookmarking the Ocean Art Contest page.
Over $75,000 in prizes are up for grabs in sixteen categories, making the Ocean Art prize value among the highest in the world. The images show a mastery of photographic technique—but most of all, they inspire wonder for the ocean.
Photographers from over 60 countries submit entries and in the end, 95 winners are selected amongst the various image categories. All of the winning images can be found on the Ocean Art page.
Winning Images
Of all the outstanding winners, we were drawn to the Mirrorless Behavior, Mirrorless Macro and Compact Macro categories. We’ve already transformed our desktop with the inside of this vibrant green sea squirt, and this juvenile cardinal fish in a bottle. And how about this adorable pearl granular crab!
We were a little disappointed in the Reefscapes category. Don’t get me wrong, the reefscape images are breathtaking, including this iconic image below of the blue linckia starfish, By Jeong Sang Keun, yet none of the images showcased stony corals.
Coral Photography
Aquarium hobbyists have a unique perspective when it comes to photographing corals, one which divers often miss. Corals have many discrete differences even between neighboring colonies and we were surprised to see only a fraction of the submissions focused on corals.
We found this one wide angle image titled “Abstral” by Pier Mane which features a huge plating colony of Montipora in the foreground. However, we can only imagine the photographer was trying to capture the large school of fish above, with the coral framing the shot.
We can all agree coral reefs are important, so why don’t we see more emphasis on coral photography in the wild? We encourage you to get out there and start taking photos of the reef, maybe you could be one of the lucky Ocean Art winners in 2017.
Instead of listing the top winners for each category, we’ve put together our 21 favorite images from the competition. Not only are these our favorite but they are also images we thought you would enjoy. So without further ado!
Click the title above the photo for story behind the shot.
21 Images From Ocean Art 2016
1. “Blue Lasso”
1st Place Wide-Angle and Best of Show
Matty Smith
2. “Light Up My Home“
2nd Place Compact Macro
Kenji Cheow
3. “Under My Wing”
1st Place Supermacro
Chad Tamis
4. “Our Enchanted Forest“
1st Place Compact Macro
Lawrence Alex Wu
5. “Amazing Squid”
1st Place Macro
Dennis Corpuz
6. “Pearl Granular Crab”
Honorable Mention Supermacro
George Low
7. “California Kelp Forest”
4th Place Cold Water
Brook Peterson
8. “Grey Triggerfish”
3rd Place Portrait
Anders Salesjö
9. “Ghostly”
2nd Place Mirrorless Macro
Lilian Koh
10. “Bad Combover”
Honorable Mention Portrait
Jeff Milisen
11. “El Vigía”
3rd Place Compact Wide Angle
Juan Pablo Plaza
12. “Brilliant Disguise”
Honorable Mention Mirrorless Macro
Peter McGee
13. “Purple Rhinopia”
Honorable Mention Compact Macro
Andrew Leighton
14. “The Strange Couple”
3rd Place Marine Life Behavior
Gianni Colucci
15. “The Next Generation”
Honorable Mention Marine Life Behavior
Henley Spiers
16. “Investment Opportunity”
Honorable Mention Mirrorless Macro
Daniel Geary
17. “Predator and Prey”
1st Place Mirrorless Behavior
Jenny Stomvoll
18. “Patience”
3rd Place Mirrorless Macro
Pier Mane
19. “Bait Ball Cocoon”
1st Place Compact Behavior
Lawrence Alex Wu
20. “Looking”
1st Place Portrait
Joaquin Gutierrez
21. “Gazes from the Blue”
Honorable Mention Mirrorless Behavior
Maurizio Pasi
