Articles

A characterful pink-eared mantis emerging from its burrow, Dauin, Philippines
 

Hailing from the UK, new DPG Photographer of the Week Jo Cudmore is an underwater photographer with a special passion for creating images of the ocean’s smallest and most fascinating creatures.

Jo’s passion for scuba diving and underwater photography began in Egypt in 2007 and grew through years of diving in the Red Sea and the Maldives. A milestone trip to the Lembeh Strait in 2013 sparked a fascination with muck diving, leading her to specialize in capturing the extraordinary biodiversity hidden within seemingly barren seabeds.

In 2022, Jo and her husband relocated to Dauin, Negros Oriental, Philippines—one of the world’s premier macro diving destinations. Living just minutes from some of the richest muck-diving sites on the planet allows her to spend countless hours exploring and documenting the remarkable marine life of the Coral Triangle.

In the years since, Jo’s work has gained international recognition, including winning the nudibranchs category at the Dive Dauin Festival with her image of mating Pikachu nudibranchs. She has also been a featured photographer on The Underwater Club, where she has shared the stories and techniques behind her award-winning images.

Through her photography, Jo aims to reveal the beauty, behavior and incredible diversity of the ocean’s tiniest inhabitants, inspiring others to look more closely and appreciate the underwater world’s hidden wonders.
 

A lemon goby sheltered in a discarded bottle, Dauin, Philippines
 

A gorgeous ornate ghost pipefish caught in a vortex, Dauin, Philippines
 

A pair of Pikachu nudibranchs mate in the beam of a snoot, Dauin, Philippines
 

A stunning soft-coral shrimp hides among the polyps of its host, Dauin, Philippines
 

A beautiful little nudibranch, Aegires villosus, sniffs the water, Bali, Indonesia
 

A Tozeuma shrimp, uncharacteristically poorly camouflaged, Dauin, Philippines
 

The “business” end of a fire urchin, Dauin, Philippines
 

A soft coral goby, seemingly bored with its photo shooot, Dauin, Philippines
 

A coconut octopus peering out from the shelter of a bottle, Dauin, Philippines
 

A juvenile painted frogfish prepares to summit a hill, Dauin, Philippines
 

A beautiful ornate ghost pipefish carrying a clutch of eggs, Dauin, Philippines
 

The beautiful blue eyes of... a scallop! Dauin, Philippines
 

A rim-lit blacksaddle snake eel with just its head emerging from the sand, Dauin, Philippines
 

A newly-hatched flamboyant cuttlefish that has beaten its siblings to the punch, Dauin, Philippines
 

To see more of Jo’s underwater macro work, please give her a follow on Instagram and visit her website, www.jocudmore.com.