2016 Underwater Photographer of the Year

Underwater photographer of the year – winner. Gold by Davide Lopresti (Italy). Location: Sistiana – Trieste, Italy. “Over the years the Mediterranean’s population of seahorses has drastically reduced. Their numbers have only recovered thanks to public awareness and a significant restocking campaign ... For this shot, I used a long exposure and camera panning, to give dynamism to the image. I then used a focused beam of light from my strobe to freeze the details in the subject. My aim was to give the scene a sense of grace and strength simultaneously”. (Photo by Davide Lopresti/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2016)

Wide-angle category third place. Lagoon by Greg Lecoeur (France). “French Polynesia is an amazing place for nature lovers. In the lagoon of Moorea I was snorkeling with an abundance of marine life, most notably these black tip sharks. The topography of the mountains in the background inspired me to realise this half and half photo”. (Photo by Greg Lecoeur/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2016)

Macro category winner. A Family Affair by Thomas Heckmann (Germany). Location: Tugboat, Curacao. “I was unable to descend ... so my only possibility was a shot from the surface. It was too rough for a normal over/under shot. I decided to try a wave and wreck shot with the island of Curacao in the background. I needed several tries to compose the wreck, the wave and the island in one shot. But at the end I got this real over/under shot with a total other view of the famous wreck”. (Photo by Thomas Heckmann/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2016)

Behaviour category third place. Millions of crabs by Rui Guerra (Portugal). Location: Berlengas natural reserve, Portugal. “Every year, millions of crabs form large red masses in places along the coast of Portugal. This high density of swimming crabs is somewhat rare. On this day we first spotted some dispersed crabs, but it took us almost an hour to find a higher concentration. And a further 20 minutes of blue-water diving until I noticed this immense “red cloud” made up of maybe several thousand crabs swimming through the water”. (Photo by Rui Guerra/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2016)

Wide-angle category winner. Part of the Illusion by Marcus Blatchford (UK). Location: National Dive & Activity Centre, Chepstow, Wales. “This is the deepest inland dive centre in the UK. The dive plan was to explore the deep end, but this time I dived ‘unplugged’ (without my strobes). With the exception of this change to my camera technique, there were no planned shots I wanted to achieve – just a fun dive with ad-hoc photos along the way. Shortly after this photo was captured, in 6C water and two hours of decompression ahead of us, we turned and started the long ascent back to the surface”. (Photo by Marcus Blatchford/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2016)

Each photography is posted with the according photographer and credits under fair use license.

Selection picked from: avax.news