There are all kinds of photography contests, but this one, the Ocean Art Underwater Photo Contest, has produced some of the best images I’ve seen. You can see the winners by going to the link in the previous sentence and scrolling down.
Alternatively, The Atlantic (click screenshot below) has a summary along with short narratives by the photographers.
I’ll show a few of my favorites; be sure to click on the photos to enlarge them.
Drifter. Honorable Mention, Nudibranchs. © Talia Greis / Ocean Art
Greis: “Almost every year, the coastal shores of Sydney, Australia, receive an influx of blue drifters (also referred to as the ‘Blue Fleet’), which consist of bluebottles, blue buttons, and the infamous Blue Dragon (more commonly referred to as the Glaucus). This magnificent critter is an organism that relies on the wind and ocean currents to carry it around, which sometimes results in heavy storms casting it ashore. The Glaucus is considered to be a type of pelagic nudibranch that devours bluebottles and stores their stinging agents as defense against predators.”
JAC: This is a nudibranch, a shell-less mollusc, Glaucus atlanticus.
Mobula Munkiana. Honorable Mention, Wide Angle. © Adam Martin / Ocean Art
Martin: ” aggregate in large schools off the coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico, each spring, during a period thought to be mating and pupping season. While motoring offshore for a week, our search was guided by breaching rays on the horizon. After many attempts to locate the rays and quietly enter the water, I was able to capture a clean image of this large school.”
JAC: The correct binomial is Mobula munkiana without a capital letter in the second word. It’s also know as the Munk’s devil ray.
Wunderpus. 2nd Place, Compact Macro. © Regie Casia / Ocean Art
Casia: “During a blackwater dive, shot at 25 meters deep over about 1,000 meters of water, we waited for the vertical migration of deep-water creatures.” Photographed in Janao Bay near Anilao, Philippines.
JAC: This appears to be Wunderpus photogenicus (what a great name!), a mimetic octopus.
The Eye. Honorable Mention, Macro. © Kat Zhou / Ocean Art
Zhou: “This photo depicts a close-up look at the eye of a nurse shark and was taken on a night dive off the coast of Bimini in the Bahamas.”
The Hunt. 2nd Place, Wide Angle. © Daniel Nicholson / Ocean Art
Nicholson: “A grey reef shark parts the tide of bait fish. In a very rare occurrence, a large shiver of sharks had herded this school of bait fish into the shallow passageways of the Ningaloo Reef in Australia. With the fish trapped here, nearly a hundred sharks spent hours in a feeding frenzy.”
h/t: Barry
wow, just…WOW
Absolutely! These photos are simply stunning.
Talk about eye candy- That eye!
Wunderpus photogenicus – I agree, terrific name, and a beautiful octopus to boot.
Very cool!
They look like illustrations for science fiction stories, but they’re pictures of life here on Earth, how cool!!!
Amazing pictures.