Our World Underwater 2011 Photo Competition Winners Announced
If you followed our Our World Underwater Show coverage, you know that the OWU 2011 competition winners have been announced. Now, everyone can feast their eyes on this epic set of underwater images online at the competition homepage - UnderwaterCompetition.com.
We added an additional award during the OWU 2011 show -- the People's Choice Award. Show attendees got to play the role of judge and vote on their favorite image. Well the people have spoken and they chose Uwe Schmolke's "Prying Eyes" (Macro Unrestricted Gold) as their favorite image. As the winner of the People's Choice Award, Uwe will win a Canon EOS 7D and lens courtesy of Canon in addition to his prize package!
The competition seems to have once again raised the bar for underwater imagery. The collective set of images is one of the best I have ever seen. Here are some observations I made on the winners:
- The Commercial, Conceptual and Fashion category was a great addition. Anatoly Beloshchin beat out some of the top underwater photographer's in the world with his absolutely flawless cenote shot on his way to Best of Show. This category is certainly here to stay!
- New names and varied winners. Last year, Keri Wilk nearly swept the competition and we saw a lot of the usual names taking home the top awards. This year, only a few photographers won multiple awards (Keri being one of them) and nobody won more than three times. Additionally, while some of the usuals were winners, many new names managed to take home prizes this year.
- No theme to the winners. Last year we saw a lot of snoot shots and lily pads take home the top prizes. This year, no one subject or technique stood out among the winners. Techniques from bokeh to backlighting to fluorescence photography were utilized in the winning images, and the subjects varied from sunken skulls to crocodiles to bubbles. That said, 4 winning images were of moray eels!
Below are some the 1st place winning images. The whole set can be seen at UnderwaterCompetition.com. Enjoy.
Of course, the competition would not be possible without our amazing sponsors!
Continue to all the winning images
