The 2025 iteration of the Underwater Awards Australasia – an underwater photography competition focused on the Australasia region is now open and accepting entries.

The competition, a three-way collaboration between Underwater Australasia, underwater photography and videography resource DivePhotoGuide, and underwater imaging equipment and dive gear distributor UW Images, will culminate in an exhibition at Go Diving Show ANZ in September 2025.

The judging panel this year comprises internationally renowned underwater photographers Tobias Friedrich, Jayne Jenkins, Matty Smith, Tanya Houppermans, Scott Portelli and William Tan; and video judges Philip Hamilton and Ross Long.

The prizes, worth more than AU$70,000 in total, include dive trips with the world’s top resorts and liveaboards, as well as the latest underwater photo and video gear—even an underwater photography drone and an underwater scooter with photographic platform.

Entrants compete for prizes in 9 categories, including Sharks, Sydney, Conservation, Australian, International, Tough GH, Portfolio and Smartphone/Action Cam.

Videographers can enter the competition’s unique ‘Reels Showcase’ video category by creating an Instagram Reel of 90 seconds or less, at least 50 per cent of which must. The top image or video among the category winners receives the distinction of Best of Show.

The competition calls for passionate underwater photographers from around the world to submit their most captivating images and videos from the Australasian region.

Winners will be revealed on UnderwaterCompetition.com and published by supporting media partners worldwide shortly thereafter. There is a US$10 entry fee per image or video entered.

For more details and to submit your photos and videos, head to the Underwater Awards Australasia 2025 entry page.

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• Review: Alex Mustard’s 52 Assignments in Underwater Photography
• 52 Assignments: Underwater Photography with Alex Mustard

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The winners of the twelfth annual Photo Competition for United Nations World Oceans Day have been announced at a celebration of the United Nations World Oceans Day in Nice, France.

A judging panel made up of world-renowned photographers Ipah Uid Lynn (Malaysia), William Tan (Singapore), Vanessa Mignon (France), Marcello Di Francesco (Italy), and Elley Cuylaerts (Belgium) selected four first-place winners from thousands of entries made by amateur and professional photographers from around the globe.

This year’s competition featured the recurring categories of: ‘Big and Small Underwater Faces’, ‘Underwater Seascapes’, and ‘Above Water Seascapes’.

A new category, ‘Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us’ was added as a tribute to this year’s World Oceans Day theme.

The first-place winners for 2025 are Andrey Nosik (Russia), Dani Escayola (Spain), Leander Nardin (Austria), and Rachel Moore (USA).

The top three place-winners and an honourable mention from every category are featured in the competition’s virtual gallery at www.unworldoceansday.org.

The winning photographs will be presented live during a panel event at the United Nations Ocean Conference on 11 June, and will be displayed in gallery exhibitions at NEO VogelArtLab in Nice and at The Explorer’s Club in New York throughout the week.

First Place: Sustaining What Sustains Us

Rachel Moore (@moore_rachel), USA

Back story: ‘This photo, taken in Mo’orea, French Polynesia in 2024, captures the eye of a humpback whale named Sweet Girl, just days before her tragic death.

‘Four days after I captured this intimate moment, she was struck and killed by a fast-moving ship. Her death serves as a heartbreaking reminder of the 20,000 whales lost to ship strikes every year.

‘We are using her story to advocate for stronger protections, petitioning for stricter speed laws around Tahiti and Mo’orea during whale season.

‘I hope Sweet Girl’s legacy will spark real change to protect these incredible animals and prevent further senseless loss.’

First Place: Big and Small Faces:

Andrey Nosic (@andreynosik), Russia

Back story: ‘This photo of a Japanese warbonnet (Chirolophis japonicus) was captured in the Sea of Japan, about 50 miles (80 kilometres) southwest of Vladivostok, Russia.

‘I found the ornate fish at a depth of about 30 meters (100 ft), under the stern of a shipwreck. This species does not appear to be afraid of divers—on the contrary, it seems to enjoy the attention—and it even tried to sit on the dome port of my camera.’

First Place: Underwater Seascapes

Dani Escayola (@daniescayola), Spain

Back story: ‘This year, I had the incredible opportunity to visit a jellyfish lake during a liveaboard trip around southern Raja Ampat, Indonesia.

‘Being surrounded by millions of jellyfish, which have evolved to lose their stinging ability due to the absence of predators, was one of the most breathtaking experiences I’ve ever had.’

First Place: Above Water Seascapes

Leander Nardin (@akela.world), Austria

Back Story: ‘A serene lake cradled by arid dunes, where a gentle stream breathes life into the heart of Mother Earth’s creation.

‘Captured from an airplane, this image reveals the powerful contrasts and hidden beauty where land and ocean meet, reminding us that the ocean is the source of all life and that everything in nature is deeply connected.

‘The location is a remote stretch of coastline near Shark Bay, Western Australia.’

The 2025 photo competition was coordinated in a collaboration between the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, DivePhotoGuide (DPG), Oceanic Global, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO.

Since its inception in 2014, the competition has been curated by underwater and wildlife photographer Ellen Cuylaerts, who also heads up the judging panel.

The Photo Competition for UN World Oceans Day is a free and open public competition that calls on photographers and artists from around the world to communicate the beauty of the ocean and the importance of the respective United Nations World Oceans Day theme each year.

All winners and participants in the competition signed a charter of 14 commitments regarding ethics in photography.

Winning photos from 2025 as well as from previous years can be viewed via the competition’s virtual gallery.

DivePhotoGuide (DPG) is a comprehensive underwater photography and videography resource and award-winning website for photographers and videographers of all levels. and has been hosting the photo competition for UN World Oceans Day every year since 2014. For more information visit www.divephotoguide.com.

Related articles

• Painting with light – an interview with Catherine Holmes
• Artificial Intelligence in underwater photography – a force for good, or evil?
• DIVE’s Big Shot Portraits – THE WINNERS!
• Underwater Photographer of the Year 2025 winners announced

The post Winners of the United Nations World Ocean Day photo competition appeared first on DIVE Magazine.

Enter your best pictures of different species living together in our latest Big Shot underwater photography competition for the chance to win an Aggressor Adventures liveaboard trip to Raja Ampat

The subject of our next Big Shot underwater photography competition is Living Together – how the underwater world functions in partnerships, be they mutually beneficial like the clownfish and its anemone, or predatory, like great white sharks and seals.

The top shots will be published in the Summer 2025 issue of our print magazine, and the overall winner will receive a 7-night trip to Raja Ampat, Indonesia, on board the Raja Ampat Aggressor (worth $3745) courtesy of Aggressor Adventures (flights not included).

Entries close at midnight (GMT) on 04 June 2025

This competition has now ended.
Winners will be announced in our Summer 25 print issue –
click here to subscribe and be the first to see them

Previous competition winners:

• DIVE’s Big Shot Bright and Beautiful
• DIVE’s Big Shot Caves, Caverns & Overhangs winners
• DIVE’s Big Shot Cephalopods winners
• DIVE’s Big Shot Kaleidoscope winners

The post DIVE’s Big Shot Living Together – win a liveaboard trip to Raja Ampat appeared first on DIVE Magazine.

Catherine Holmes talks to DIVE’s Mark ‘Crowley’ Russell about her journey from amateur snapper to award-winning underwater photographer – and being bitten by a giant American crocodile!

Catherine Holmes, originally from Australia and now a dental surgeon resident in England, is a multi-award-winning photographer.

Among her outstanding achievements is being the first woman to win the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Underwater Category in 2023.

Her photograph of a tarpon hunting amid a school of silversides was also voted DIVE’s best Big Shot of 2024.

Where did it all begin and how did you make the transition from enthusiast to serious underwater photographer?

I started diving when I was about 17 in Australia and for many years used one of the little Sony waterproof cameras (a Cybershot with the now famous Marine pack), and then I went onto the Sea&Sea Motormarine 1 (the yellow box once virtually ubiquitous in dive shops), which I flooded loads of times.

But really it was just a hobby on a week or two a year. I’d manage to get away for a week and come back with rolls and rolls of film and hardly anything would come out.

I’ve always been interested in composition and painting – I’ve painted all my life – and my photographs were getting better but I was frustrated. I’d go to dive shows and hear Alex Mustard talk and think: I want to take pictures like that.

I kept hearing that if you want to improve your photography, you need to get away on photo trips with other photographers, because divers and photographers don’t always mix – we just spend too long taking pictures – and doing that changed my outlook.

I took advice from lots of people and started with an Olympus EM-5 Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera in 2016, then I progressed to an EM1 MkII [on which the pink and yellow goby shot towards the end of this article was taken], but eventually my friend Nick Moore got frustrated with me and said, ‘Take my Nikon D500; get an SLR!’ So, I took his D500 away for a week, and when I came back I went and bought one!

I’m feeling some pressure from other photographers with their newer cameras but I’m sticking with the D500 for now because it’s working for me – what you see and how you see it is far more important to the photograph than the kit.

What do you enjoy most about being an underwater photographer and do you have a favourite style?

I’m passionate about just being underwater and being with the fish, so just being there is incredible.

Creating the image is all about getting the feel of the place, finding something that’s inspiring, and then working out how to take the picture – waiting for ages, getting the creatures comfortable with you and at the same time thinking: where’s my light coming from? What have I got to frame this to make it look an attractive picture?

It’s exactly the same as painting because when you paint, you’re looking for a subject; you’ve got nice light, you’ve got nice colour, and so my photographs are generally very painterly.

Henley [award-winning photographer Henley Spiers] thinks my images have too much colour, but you look at different photographers’ pictures and see everybody’s got a very personal style – some are more focused on macro; others are interested in more technical stuff, but I think mine is very much colourist.

When it comes to macro or wide-angle, I can’t say I love one more than the other, because they’re both fabulous. I have really enjoyed trying new techniques like bokeh and shallow depth of field, and I really like reverse lenses and the effects you can get with that – I spent a lot of time in Indonesia last year doing reverse lenses and stuff, trying out new techniques for more interesting backgrounds.

Where are your favourite places to dive and do you have any special underwater memories?

Raja Ampat is really amazing and so is the Red Sea – the colour is incredible – and I went to Mexico to dive with the sea lions and I was just in heaven.

I could barely compose a picture because I was so excited, because they’re just so amazing, these beautiful creatures.

But my most memorable photograph was snorkelling with the crocodile [see the previous page] when I actually got bitten, which has become folklore within the underwater photography community. I was so shocked I didn’t even really realise!

Fortunately, I survived, I’ve just got three big teeth marks on either side of my thigh. That was a bit exciting, but the picture looks great in my surgery waiting room. People love it, and there’s a good story to tell.

What advice would you give to beginners looking to follow in your footsteps?

Firstly, you have to be really, really comfortable in the water with good buoyancy control to stay where you want without impacting the reef or the ambience of the fish. If you really love it then it becomes quite easy, but good diving is super important before the photography.

Get into the community. Go and join something like BSoUP (British Society of Underwater Photographers) – and read a lot. Alex Mustard and Martin Edge’s books are both bibles for someone who wants to learn about how to compose and work their cameras.

Go on dedicated photo trips if you can, just to be with other photographers, because photographers are actually very keen to share knowledge – the BSoUP monthly meetings have breakout rooms for beginners to chat with other photographers, and really good lectures.

Learn from a teacher for a while, or even just one trip with a camera pro, because you will have a problem, and you won’t know why, and they will point out you’ve got it on the wrong setting.

You can often be stopped at the first hurdle by something small, so it’s really helpful to be with other people that are knowledgeable, not just other photographers.

The most important thing with underwater photography is getting the light right, so learning where to position your strobes is paramount, and another photographer will see immediately if they’re in the wrong place.

You can take great pictures with natural light, so start simple in shallow water, snorkelling with a camera.

The most important thing is just to be passionate and keep trying and to be open to sharing, because we’ve got a really great community.

While on the surface it can look quite competitive, actually everybody wants people to get the best and see the best and share the best, because we all want to protect what we’re seeing.

To see more of Cathy’s fantastic pictures visit her website at catherineholmesunderwaterphotography.com or find her on Instagram @catherineholmes.photography

More great reads from our magazine

• Artificial Intelligence – good or bad for underwater photography?
• Liveaboard safety – how divers can change it and when to walk away
• Luxury resort versus budget homestay in Raja Ampat
• DIVE’s Big Shot Portraits – THE WINNERS!
• The National Lobster Hatchery – giving lobsters a helping hand

Click here to take out a regular yearly subscription

The post Painting with light – an interview with Catherine Holmes appeared first on DIVE Magazine.

Artificial Intelligence is everywhere. Jenny Stock considers its impact on the world of underwater photography, and how she uses it to create perfect pictures.

By Jenny Stock

Long gone are the days of the photographic darkroom. In that otherworldly space, prints would slowly emerge on photographic paper, dimly lit by red lamps while surrounded by trays of intriguingly smelly chemicals.

Today, this archaic practice is rare; the machines have taken over, and AI is everywhere.

Given our additional challenges as underwater photographers (backscatter, low light and a dive buddy who gets in every shot), we need all the help we can get. So, what is available to us? And is AI a force for good or evil?

One of the first things to consider is the purpose of our image. Regular uses for my images include competitions, magazines, documentation, art, conservation messaging and memories. The destination of my image will dictate how I handle my photographs.

When I’m submerged and snapping away, I rarely obtain a flawless image. If it does happen, these perfect pictures are gifts from the underwater gods, and I submit them to competitions that don’t allow any image manipulation. Wildlife Photographer of the Year and GDT, for example.

Conversely, competitions such as Ocean Art and DIVE’s Big Shot allow much more interventionist creativity. Underwater Photographer of the Year allows manipulation, however, I feel their judges are veering towards natural history images of late.

Tragically, most of my images are imperfect and need tinkering with. Luckily, there is a wealth of tools at my disposal. The basic edits provided by Lightroom and Photoshop had their origins in the darkroom – dodging and burning evolved into digital brushes that can raise and lower shadows and highlights.

Software provides an array of interesting AI tools, and after a quick selection with a lasso, I can use a content-aware fill to remove and replace my pesky photobombing dive buddy. Programmes such as Topaz assist me with noise reduction, sharpening and upscaling images.

Most underwater photographers will have heard of the plugin for Photoshop called Backscatter Xterminator. With one click the software identifies and removes backscatter – but is it worth it?

Perhaps not for entries to purist competitions, but for photos that exist to remind us of an incredible encounter, and maybe mount on the wall – absolutely!

Removing backscatter can take hours, so it’s a great time-saving AI tool. But the question must be asked: do we want our photos to be sterile? Backscatter exists in the ocean, always removing it perhaps creates an unrealistic depiction.

Speaking of unrealistic, I must confess I love some of the bizarre images produced by AI, particularly portrayals of horrifying monsters of the deep. I dream of discovering creatures like this on a dive.

A popular image creator is Midjourney and I’ve been greatly entertained playing with it. However, fun as these images
are, they do blur lines between reality and fiction while raising ethical concerns about authenticity.

IS IT ETHICAL?

There is a worry that AI is a weapon of misinformation. Today, social media is filled with images of underwater animals that don’t exist.

Critics also bemoan AI for copying our original work. When commercial organisations choose to use AI creations instead of our photographs, it takes jobs and money away from hard-working photographers. Last month, some artists took action.

One thousand musicians, including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and Damon Albarn, released a silent album in protest against the UK’s planned changes to copyright law, arguing that it would allow companies to easily duplicate their style, vocals and ideas without paying them.

Should we, in turn, join ranks by producing some blank images? I’ve taken quite a few when I left the lens cap on… maybe I will donate them to the cause.

There is no doubt that AI is problematic. In 2023 a surreptitiously entered AI image won digiDirect’s photography competition.

The picture was created by Sydney-based company Absolutely Ai. It was entered as a publicity stunt to prove ‘machine is now the superior artist to man’.

SPOT THE GENUINE IMAGE

One of the images below is a genuine photograph, the others have all been generated by various AI systems (answer below)

On the underwater circuit, I’ve heard a tale from one judge that an entry, a stunning image of a manatee, got very far in the rounds before it was noticed the animal had an extra flipper. On further investigation, the creator was revealed to be an AI artist, so in the bin it went.

It’s still very difficult to fake RAW files, so a close examination of RAW files should be expelling the fakes.

Conversely, and remarkably, Miles Astray won an AI competition with a genuine photo of a headless flamingo. He named his image Flamingone. This authentic photograph was placed by a panel of judges and it also won the People’s Vote Award before it was revealed the image was genuine, and therefore disqualified.

Miles Astray hoped it would show that ‘nature still outdoes the machines in terms of creativity and beauty’ and that today we can ‘hardly distinguish between real media and AI-generated content’.

Cheating in photography competitions is nothing new. I always chuckle thinking about Wildlife Photographer of the Year having to withdraw an award. The image had won the ‘animals in their environment’ category, and was a dramatic capture of a snuffling anteater, reaching around a glowing termite mound.

However, it was determined by independent scientists that it was actually a photo of a recognised stuffed animal, stolen from outside a visitor centre at the entrance to Brazil’s Emas National Park. Brazilian wildlife photographer Marcio Cabral was disqualified for attempting to deceive judges.

On a more workaday level, AI has significantly improved the focus capabilities of cameras and subject detection. Other innovations have also allowed us to create novel media with cameras such as the Insta360 X4 that can be used with AI software to create an intriguing ‘tiny planet’ view of the world. Even your selfie-stick is ‘disappeared’ from the final image.

I was lucky enough to win third place in this year’s Underwater Photographer of the Year in the compact camera section with one of these striking images, demonstrating that this new and relatively inexpensive technology can compete with more expensive and complicated setups.

Finally, I just used an AI text generator to write a conclusion to this article. I quote: ‘No matter your opinion, AI is here to stay and will continue to be a significant part of your lives, impacting various industries and aspects of daily life. Its rapid development and integration into various sectors indicate its lasting presence.’

There’s no escape, the robots are taking over!

More great reads from our magazine

• Liveaboard safety – how divers can change it and when to walk away
• DIVE’s Big Shot Portraits – THE WINNERS!
• How to become a better diver: never stop learning
• The National Lobster Hatchery – giving lobsters a helping hand
• The Young Dive Ambassadors of Atlantis Dumaguete

Click here to take out a regular yearly subscription

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