Ocean Art Photography Competition

ninja boy · Post time 20-1-2017 11:17 PM

These are the winners of 2016...
Blue Lasso

The Physalia Utriculus also known as the Pacific Man of War or Bluebottle uses it's deadly blue tendril to paralyse prey of small pelagic fish and crustaceans. Once its meal has been immobilized the tentacle is quickly retracted to draw the victim up the stomachs where it will be digested. There are often hundreds of these animals washed into the bays near my home over night during the correct wind and current conditions. A lucky composition and beautiful illumination highlights the beauty of this elegant predator. It was one of those rare moments when it all came together for me, the fortunate photographer, I knew I had just witnessed something very special.
Mirror Mirror

Green Turtles, just like myself, are regular visitors to Moore Reef, on the Great Barrier Reef, out of Cairns. The site is regularly visited by snorkelers and divers and the Turtles have become unconcerned about the regular human presence and some have become relatively friendly. I visited this dive site, along with my model in the hopes of getting so images pf human and turtle interaction. This particular turtle was extremely friendly and very inquisitive and had made a few passes at us. I managed to capture the turtle’s reflection in the divers mask in one such close pass. It is quite rare for Green Turtles to be so inquisitive.
Amazing Squid

I saw this Bobtail squid hovering roughly 6 inches near the bottom (very rare behavior). I suspected it was looking for some prey. I gently move backward to configure and confirmed my camera settings. Once done, I slowly approached to the squid and eventually tried to swim against me. It hover and flared (open) their tentacles in just a matter of 3-7 seconds. Luckily, I successfully managed to get some few shots before it finally dwelt into the sand.
Mating Toads

Every year during spring season, in this pond lots of toads and frogs are mating. It's really amazing to see all of them together and on this image you can also notice not only the eggs of the toads, but even the eggs from the frogs, all together as one happy family ! This fascinating scene only lasts a few weeks.
Bait Ball Cocoon

Cocooned by a swirling ball of frenzied glass fish, nature decided in a matter of seconds this diver's fate...as well as his outfit for a several minutes! However, it was the instinctive nature of the predating school of larger fish that corralled the glass fish from the reef below into mid water where they all came upon this diver. The blanket of glass fish grazed against my whole body and face as they swarmed around me to avoid the incessant torpedoing attacks of the hunters.
Action!!!

The Atoll Banco Chinchorro is located 40 km east in front of Mexico's coast at the height of Puerto Bravo. There in the mangroves lives a large number of American salt water crocodiles. A small part of the animals, which are up to 7m long, have learned that the fishermen throw their waste into the sea while taking the catches. This is the reason why the animals come from the mangrove near the fishermen 's huts, in the hope to get something to eat there. The encounter with these animals was one of the most indescribable experience under water for me!
Moonrise

I don’t have a specific style in my underwater photography — I just try to be different and use fresh ideas and techniques. When I saw this weedy scorpionfish (Rhinopias frondosa), I kept thinking to myself, I have got to do something special. I had only my dive torch, so I used it for backlighting. After around 100 clicks on the shutter, I checked the images on my camera screen and found this one. I knew I had achieved the picture I had hoped to create.
Looking

Marine drift lines carry all kinds of marine animals, jellyfish, gelatinous animals, fish farms and in many cases species that take advantage of these lines for their food. This time these two roosters feed on a piece of jellyfish or some gelatinous species.When I saw their looks through the viewfinder and being able to capture this photograph made me very excited.
Got It!

Since 2010 I am involved in Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation and remain Director for a facility in Far North Queensland. When we had to build a larger and better hospital i tried to make my photographic skills of use to raise awareness but also funds to be able to operate. When you care for Turtles there are 3 moments that make you happy. First when they start eating, second when they come up for a breath, and lastly when they get released back to the wild. This Turtle in the images we called Eva. She had a very i would say cheeky character and was one of the few Turtles in care that posed for my camera. I wanted to document and tell a story about the individual Turtles and add some real drama to it. All i did was to add some motion blur to the background, enhance the colours and create more contrast by using dodge & burn techniques.