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Photography

Go deep with the 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year winners

By Rich Haridy
March 07, 2019
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Commended, Category - Compact. Humpback whales off the coast of Tonga
Andy Schmid/UPY 2019
Category winner - Behavior. Overall winner, Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019 & British Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019. As the sun sets on Fakarava South Pass, the estimated 700 sharks that are patrolling the mouth of the channel by day, begins to hunt at night. The gauntlet is about to unfold
Richard Barnden/UPY 2019
Runner Up, Category - Behavior. The heat run is the ultimate wildlife encounter, multiple whales competing for a female, the chase can last for hours or even days. Often many dolphin species are found moving with the Humpback groups
Scott Portelli/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Black and White. This image is taken at the Silfra fissure, the place is known as one of the top dive sites in the world, the fissure is actually a crack between the North American and Eurasian continents
Anders Nyberg/UPY 2019
Winner, Category - Wide Angle. A humpback whale snapped off Reunion Island, Saint-Gillies
François Baelen/UPY 2019
Runner up, Category - Wide Angle. A spot known as the Iceberg Graveyard on the Antarctic Peninsula, where massive ice giants come to rest on a rocky bottom. A group of 8 crabeater seals cavorting around the icebergs
Jessica Farrer/UPY 2019
Third place, Category - Wide Angle. A rugby team captured during the European Championships in Germany
Konstantin Killer/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Wide Angle. The underwater life of the Northern seas is very diverse. Many of the organisms living here are much larger and brighter than their southern counterparts
Egor Nikiforov/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Wide Angle. Titled "Princess of the Underworld". taken in Cenote Taj Mahal, Mexico
Thomas Heckmann/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Wide Angle. From August to November, Cow nose or Golden Rays congregate in large numbers in Costa Rican Pacific waters
Edward Herreño/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Wide Angle. The Adams River is a tributary to the Thompson and Fraser Rivers in British Columbia, Canada. Beginning in the Monashee Mountains to the north, the Upper Adams River flows mainly southward and eventually reaches Adams Lake. The Lower Adams River begins at the southern end of the lake and flows into the extreme western end of Shuswap Lake. The river is one of the most important sockeye salmon breeding areas in North America
yung-sen wu/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Wide Angle. A double exposure made in De Melle Turnhout Belgium featuring mating frogs
Luc Rooman/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Wide Angle. Each year during the early spring, the normally barren looking West Coast landscape of South Africa undergoes a magnificent transformation as millions of wildflowers bloom and decorates the landscape in a kaleidoscope of colours as far as the eye can see
Geo Cloete/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Wide Angle. Young bear cubs examining an underwater camera
Mike Korostelev/UPY 2019
Winner, Category - Macro. A Sepiola cuttlefish captured during its mating phase
Fabio Iardino/UPY 2019
Third place, Category - Macro. The face of a Tiger Cardinalfish, open-mouthed, with sharp teeth protruding, and eggs within, is captured within a wave of blue. Cardinalfish are famous mouth-brooders, with the male responsible for guarding the eggs until they are ready to hatch
Henley Spiers/UPY 2019
Highly Commended, Category - Macro. Romblon, located in the Philippines is the house of some unique sea slugs
Bruno Van Saen/UPY 2019
Winner, Category - Wrecks. The HMS Audacious, which is laying on 64 meters in Malin Head, Ireland, was a dreadnought battleship which struck a mine in 1914. After she capsized, the shells magazine exploded and she sank
René B. Andersen/UPY 2019
Runner up, Category - Wrecks. The bow sections of the Chrisoula K wreck in the Red Sea
Tobias Friedrich/UPY 2019
Third place, Category - Wrecks. The Baltic Sea is a treasure trove of wooden wrecks. However, many of them have been stripped of their wheels, bells and artifacts. This unknown and unnamed wreck is a new find
Pekka Tuuri/UPY 2019
Third place, Category - Behavior. The photo was taken in Lembeh Indonesia. The snake eel with a magnificent cleaning shrimp hanging around on it
Fu Liang/UPY 2019
Winner, Category - Portrait. A smiling ray face captured off the coast of Stratoni, Greece
Nicholas Samaras/UPY 2019
Runner up, Category - Portrait. The Galapagos Islands are the only place on the planet that you can see marine Iguanas in their natural habitant. This photo looks like the fictional character Godzilla that is smiling before starting some mischief
Bruce Sudweeks/UPY 2019
Third place, Category - Portrait. The Kobudai fish, also know as Asian sheepshead wrasse
Fabrice Dudenhofer/UPY 2019
Winner, Category - Black & White. This image captures the hostile, black silhouette of the cormorant as it dives down onto its prey, who for a brief moment, remain unaware of the danger above
Henley Spiers/UPY 2019
Runner up, Category - Black & White. Hundreds of thousands of tiny fish flow like mercury through the multiple swim throughs trying to avoid becoming dinner for the massive tarpon in the area
Ken Kiefer/UPY 2019
Third place, Category - Black & White. The idea was imagined and conceived in black and white, in order to enhance the details of the body, face, hair and dress in the contrasts of light and dark, all embellished with irregular bubbles trying to convey tranquility, sensuality and femininity of the model in being in the element of water
Gianni Pecchiar/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Black & White. This is a very urban trout. It lives in an urban runoff tube under a very busy motorway in Helsinki, Finland. The fish were born the same spring
Pekka Tuuri/UPY 2019
Winner, Category - Compact. A hairy frogfish, snapped early one morning off the coast of Indonesia
Enrico Somogyi/UPY 2019
Runner up, Category - Compact. A nudibranch captured off the coast of Indonesia
ManBD/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Compact. An open mouthed Grupper, one of the hardest fish to easily capture with a compact camera
Lorincz Ferenc /UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Compact. Humpback whales off the coast of Tonga
Andy Schmid/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Compact. Freediving in a cave on the Island of Kefalonia
Marcus Greatwood/UPY 2019
Winner, Up and Coming Underwater Photographer of the Year. Overwater, beautiful resorts and palm trees in super clear sky, French Polynesia. Underwater, nearly 1m depth, colorful and untouched hard corals with some reef fishes
Taeyup Kim/UPY 2019
Runner up, Category - Up and Coming. This shot was taken in a remote bay of Solta island, during this year sailing in Croatia
Matej Bergoc/UPY 2019
Third place, Category - Up and Coming. The shallow lagoon of Moorea provides a unique opportunity to interact with black tip reef sharks and stingrays
Remuna/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Up and Coming. Leru Cut is such a dynamic and photographically challenging dive site due to the ever changing lighting. The Cut itself is 12m deep and 100m into the island of Leru and is allegedly the entrance to a 1km unexplored cave system
Adam Beard/UPY 2019
Winner, Category - British Waters Wide Angle. Snapped off the Isles of Scilly
Robert Bailey/UPY 2019
Runner up, Category - British Waters Wide Angle. Grass snake swimming along a garden pond
Jack Perks/UPY 2019
Winner, Most Promising British Underwater Photographer. A compass jellyfish, pulsating gently through the surface waters
Malcolm Nimmo/UPY 2019
Highly Commended, Category - British Waters Wide Angle. For many years grey seals have been hunted by humans for their fur and fat, particularly in the 19th century, they have disappeared from many areas of their normal range
Greg Lecoeur/UPY 2019
Winner, Category - British Waters Macro. A long clawed squat lobster posed proudly outside his man-made home, which he shared with numerous brittlestars, while dainty sea loch anemones decorated the entrance
Arthur Kingdon/UPY 2019
Runner up, Category - British Waters Macro. This picture of a Sea Hare was taken just before the major restoration works commenced on Swanage Pier
Paul Pettitt/UPY 2019
Third place, Category - British Waters Macro. A frog in Malls Mire, Glasgow
Mark Kirkland/UPY 2019
Highly Commended, Category - British Waters Macro. Firework anemones are stunning creatures that live in the dark waters of some Scottish sea-lochs. Under normal light they are white with hints of red and brown. But when using a special blue light, they glow with an inner light that seems to be not of this earth
Dan Bolt/UPY 2019
Winner, Category - British Waters Living Together. This huge shoal of mackerel forgot to check the tide time table! Caught out by the spring low tide in St.Ives harbour, hundreds of mackerel found themselves stuck for a few hours until the tide came back in
Victoria Walker/UPY 2019
Third place, Category - British Waters Living Together. The Valentine Tanks sank during a top secret rehearsal for the D-Day Landings.The Isle of Purbeck Sub Aqua Club have been researching and recording the known Tanks to mark the 75th Anniversary of the Accident
Paul Pettitt/UPY 2019
Highly Commended, Category - British Waters Living Together. This pier in Shetland is in regular use, and divers have to be careful to avoid ferry times and approach from the right direction to avoid danger to themselves and boat traffic. This particular octopus had found a razorclam for dinner, and after this shot it used formidable arm strength to break it open
Kirsty Andrews/UPY 2019
Highly Commended, Category - British Waters Living Together.  Swanage pier in good visibility is a great UK shore dive and hosts a varied cast of critter characters in about 3m of water, allowing a long, pleasant, shallow experience. A tompot blenny was guarding a clutch of eggs inside the empty clam shell, and he appeared to have a close relationship with the corkwing wrasse
Kirsty Andrews/UPY 2019
Runner up, Category - British Waters Living Together. This pier, situated on the west coast of Scotland, is swept by nutrient-rich currents and the marine life is particularly prolific
Arthur Kingdon/UPY 2019
Winner, Category - British Waters Compact. A young seal pup playing off the Farne Islands
Martin Edser/UPY 2019
Third place, Category - British Waters Compact. A Snakelocks anemone in a quiet rockpool
Andy Ball/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - British Waters Compact. A local dive site steeped in history is the wreck of the Drottningen af Swerige (Queen of Sweden), an 18th century  merchant ship wrecked on the shore close to the safety of the harbour
Willie Coghill/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - British Waters Compact. A Signal Crayfish is interrupted by a diver
Martin Edser/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - British Waters Compact. Butterfish amongst the mussels 
Guy Mitchell/UPY 2019
Winner, Marine Conservation Photographer of the Year. The Caretta caretta turtles spend much of their life in the open ocean. They come to the Canary Island after crossing the Atlantic Ocean from the Caribbean beaches. In this trip of many years  they often have to avoid many dangerous traps like plastics, ropes, fishing nets etc
Acevedo/UPY 2019
Third place, Category - Marine Conservation. A seahorse trapped inside a squeezed plastic cup
Noam Kortler/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Marine Conservation. A shark class in the Bahamas
Sirachai Arunrugstichai/UPY 2019
Runner up, Category - Macro. Inside the eggs, the Philippines
Flavio Vailati/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Macro. Some lemon gobies are difficult to capture as they are shy and pretty skittish
Lilian Koh/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Macro. The Anilao Bay in the Philippines as deep as 180m, successfully attracted and photographed the Diamond Squid, (Thysanoteuthis rhombus)
Songda Cai/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Macro. Clown fish eggs
Tam CH/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Macro. Mosshead Warbonnets
Matthew Sullivan/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Macro. Often the nudibranchs are placed in places that do not allow beautiful / colored background
Marcello Di Francesco/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Macro. Common soft coral, on which live transparent shrimp symbiosis with coral
wen ming(chan mao66)/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Wrecks. The James W. Curran and John McPhail were car ferries that sank into 210ft / 64 meters while being towed to Kingston Ontario. They couldn't handle the strain of the storm  and even today they are still attached by the long tow line
Becky Kagan Schott /UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Wrecks. The Gunilda is thought to be one of the most stunning shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. It is in a remote area in Northern Lake Superior and sits in 84 meters of ice cold, black water. The 60 meter long Yacht sank after running aground in 1911 and today remains preserved in the freshwater
Becky Kagan Schott /UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Wrecks. It was a bit of a stormy day and the backdrop of the shipwreck and sharks just had a Pirates of the Caribbean moody vibe 
Ken Kiefer/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Wrecks. The Cornelia B. Windiate was a three masted wooden schooner that disappeared in a November gale in 1875. It's still a mystery as to what happened to the crew since the yawl boat sits next to the ship, a haunting reminder of the loss of life
Becky Kagan Schott /UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Wrecks. The iconic WW1 wreck of the liner SS Justicia is a challenging technical dive, lying in over 70m of cold Atlantic water off Donegal, Ireland
Rick Ayrton/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Wrecks. Torpedoed on 10th August 1918, SS Le Polynesien has been below the waves for over 100 years. Laying in 55m of water, scanning her was no easy task. Armed with a camera taking 1 photo every second attached to my Dive-xtras CUDA 400 underwater scooter, 4343 images captured over 2 dives, to create a fully orbital 3d model
Marcus Blatchford/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Wrecks. This particular wreck of the ship ELINA has been situated on the Northeast coast of Andros island since September 1996
Giorgos Rigoutsos/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Behavior. This photo was taken in Minamata, Kumamoto in Japan. This species of sea horse was not officially named until 2017. In order to avoid natural enemies and to improve the survival rate of babies, this sea horses in Minamata generally climb to the upper part of the seaweed between 2am and 6am to give birth
K.Zhang/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Behavior. Female pilot whale protecting her dead calf for days, unique behavior in the animal world
Acevedo/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Behavior. Squid run is an annual event that happens along the coast of Southern California in December for several days or sometimes weeks. Thousands of squid come closer to shore to mate, lay eggs, and die. The area where this happens is crawling with life feasting on alive and dead squid and eggs. The eggs will hatch in several weeks to start another cycle of life
Yury Velikanau/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Behavior. The southern fakarava pass is known for its biodiversity and is well known for its high concentration of grey sharks. During the day, hundreds of sharks gather inside the pass to enjoy the tidal current, which allows them to rest and oxygenate without effort. At nightfall, the pass becomes the scene of predation where squales hunt small coral fish that take shelter in the reef
Greg Lecoeur/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Behavior. River lampreys in a small creek in Finland
Pekka Tuuri/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Behavior. An extraoridnary congregation of seven sperm whales
Mike Korostelev/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Behavior. Jelly fish are like trains in the ocean, always full of passengers that want a free ride. The argonauts, always drifting in the ocean in their lifetime, have significant differences between males and females. An adult male is only 2.5-4cm long, cannot make shells by themselves like the females, and often need to reply on the passing by jelly fishes or ascidians to protect themselves from predator and save some energy
Songda Cai/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Portrait. A playful humpback whale calf
Greg lecoeur/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Portrait. A freshwater Crab (Potamon fluviatile) in the waters of an italian river trying to to hide himself among the roots of a tree.This fragile animal is very sensitive to pollution, human activities, presence of alien species and climate changes, it can only be found in a decreasing number of specific areas
Pietro Formis/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Portrait. A Great Hammerhead in the Bahamas
James Ferrara/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Portrait. Sanda Delija is a free-diving champion, she posed at 18 meters depth among the fish
Virginia Salzedo/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Portrait. Scuba Seraya house reef, Bali, is home to the most friendly Bargibanti pygmy seahorses
Nicholas More/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Portrait. The moray eel is often an ignored subject in underwater photography as it is a common critter
Fu Liang/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Portrait. During mid winter month in central tirrenian sea monk fish come up from deep water for mating
Filippo Borghi/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Black & White. This is a double exposure image, in the submerged half there is the silouette a Batfish (Platax teira), in the aerial half of the image, there is the boat Duke of York
Marco Gargiulo/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Black & White. The porcelain crab is a common but charismatic critter, that live in a symbiotic relationship with their host anemone. They wave their fan like setae to catch food in the current
Nicholas More/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Black & White. A free diver under water the instantly freezes dues to the cold
Pekka Tuuri/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Black & White. The shark’s animated expression and the impression of the surface above combined to create a memorable black and white image
Kirsty Andrews/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Black & White. The shadow of the photographer resembles a frog looking down over a swimming shark
Enrico Somogyi/UPY 2019
Highly Commended, Category - Compact. Reflection of a juvenile platax tera on a leaf
Jack BERTHOMIER/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Compact. The photo shows a group of yellow and white gorgonians
Andrea Falcomatà/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Compact. A mushroom shrimp shot in High-Key
Andrea Michelutti/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Compact. A fisheye shot taken in Misool, Indonesia
Ipah UiD/UPY 2019
Third place, Category - Compact. A juvenile Spanish Dancer
Enrico Somogyi/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - Up and Coming. An iconic silhouette of a seahorse
Zarina Staller/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Up and Coming. Some of Milos’ most beautiful beaches are only accessible by boat, which can be rather photogenic subjects themselves
Pavlos Evangelidis/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Up and Coming. A praying mantis with caviar
Igor Bogachenko/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - British Waters Wide Angle. The pike in Stoney Cove, Leicestershire grow BIG! They are ambush predators that hang around in the shallows, stalking smaller fish
Nicholas More/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - British Waters Wide Angle. The Loch Garden, Scotland
Mark Kirkland/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - Up and Coming. Guillemots seen in a dive off St Abbs
Robert Cuss/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - British Waters Compact. Sea loch anemones (Protanthea simplex)
James Lynott/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - British Waters Compact. A red eyed fish and a free diver meet
Marcus Greatwood/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - British Waters Compact. Rock Pool Reflections - Low Tide
Elizabeth Sanderson/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - British Waters Compact. This shot was taken during a night dive at Beacon Cove in Torquay
Guy Mitchell/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - British Waters Macro. A colourful Facelina auriculata 
Kirsty Andrews/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - British Waters Macro. Comb jellies regularly float past divers in the water column, and many of them host amphipod hitch-hikers.  These amphipods burrow into the jelly and enjoy the ride, eating as they go
Kirsty Andrews/UPY 2019
Highly commended, Category - British Waters Macro. Greater pipefish (Syngnathus acus) are a relatively dull brown colour which enables them to blend into their surroundings with cunning camouflage. Once spotted, they often initially freeze and hope the photographer retreats, before sinuously heading away
Kirsty Andrews/UPY 2019
Commended, Category - British Waters Macro. UK waters have some strikingly coloured fish, one of whom is the rarely seen Red Blenny, or Portuguese Blenny (Parablennius ruber), a sister species to the better known and equally characterful Tompot
Cathy Lewis/UPY 2019
Commended, Category- British Waters Macro. The colourful brittlestar bed in Loch Carron makes a wonderful backdrop for the creatures that live in it, such as this eel-shaped butterfish, Pholis gunnellus, which is perfectly adapted to weaving in and out of the thick carpet of entwining arms, hunting for food
Cathy Lewis/UPY 2019
View gallery - 110 images

The Underwater Photographer of the Year competition concentrates on the impressive variety of photography capturing the fascinating worlds beneath the surface of the ocean, lakes or swimming pools. This year's huge selection of winning photographs present a stunning array of images, from diving amongst sperm whales to macro snaps of fish eggs.

The overall winner this year was UK-based photographer Richard Barnden with an amazing image titled The Gauntlet. To take the photo, Barnden stepped into a feeding frenzy of hundreds of grey reef sharks as they swarmed upon a school of parrotfish. The judges called the image "breath-taking," and commended Barnden for bravely placing himself amidst the action.

Category winner - Behavior. Overall winner, Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019 & British Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019. As the sun sets on Fakarava South Pass, the estimated 700 sharks that are patrolling the mouth of the channel by day, begins to hunt at night. The gauntlet is about to unfold
Richard Barnden/UPY 2019

"At night, in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, Richard transports us right to the peak of the action as a tangle of grey reef sharks rise like a breaking wave to tear apart their prey," comments Alex Mustard, chair of the judging jury. "To take this picture, in the dark with a wide angle lens, meant that the photographer was right in the midst of the hunt, and the photo takes us right there too, letting us experience the ocean's wilder side."

The competition spans over ten broad categories covering Behavior, Macro, Black & White, and Wrecks. There is also extra focus on photography capturing local UK waters with several British-specific categories. As judge Alex Mustard notes, the breadth of the photography featured in the competition affirms how much variety there is in the world of underwater photography.

Highly commended, Category - Portrait. A Great Hammerhead in the Bahamas
James Ferrara/UPY 2019

"As much as I love the category and special award winners, it is the entire collection I value most because it celebrates excellence across the different disciplines of underwater photography," says Mustard. "It is a reminder that while we are a specialist niche in the world of photography, ours is a very varied discipline."

Take a look through our gallery to see the astonishing winners and commended images from this year's strong competition.

Source: UPY2019

View gallery - 110 images

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Rich Haridy
Rich has written for a number of online and print publications over the last decade while also acting as film critic for several radio broadcasters and podcasts. His interests focus on psychedelic science, new media, and science oddities. Rich completed his Masters degree in the Arts back in 2013 before joining New Atlas in 2016.
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