The results of Underwater Photographer of the year are out! I am delighted to be able to say that a couple of my images ended up in the mix, I managed to get a 3rd place in the British Waters Wide Angle Category and a Commended in the Wrecks Category. Needless to say I am very chuffed to be in such esteemed company and would like to congratulate all winners, placed, highly commended and commended photographers in the competition. As well as a mention to all entrants (in excess of 5000), without whom the competition cannot work. 

Finally, a word of support for the Judges Alex Mustard, Peter Rowlands and Martin Edge plus those supporting behind the scenes Dan Bolt and Saeed Rashid.

Third Place Wide Angle Image

This is my third place British Wide angle image

This image might seem familiar to followers of O’Three and there is a bit of a story behind it. I had been approached by Sean, Marcus, Josh & Dave  to provide a selection of images as they were in the process of getting new display material for the dive show stand. As an ambassador I wanted to help so provided a selection of UK & Overseas images for them to choose from. They had seen some images of mine taken last year on the Salsette, particularly this one:

I think there was a bit of confusion about where my images had been taken, this resulted in the 3rd place image being attributed – on O’Three publicity – to a shot taken on the Salsette. The narrative on the UPY site is correct, the shot was actually taken on the wreck of the SS Shockland which lies in waters south of Jersey.

When I arrived at the NEC last October for the show my eye was immediately drawn to the new stand, it seemed to tower over its neighbours and all the images chosen were very striking and looked fantastic printed huge on stretchy lycra panels.

Since then I have seen that the publicity in Dive mags using the torn paper format also uses the same image. When entering photographic competitions it is always said that you should keep images under wraps until the judges see them since impact can be lost from an image if it has already been seen. I don’t know if any of the judges had seen the shot before the judging process, what I do know is that because of prior exposure I really wasn’t sure if I should enter the image, obviously I am now very pleased that I did.

Wrecks Category

My other commended image is of the bow of the SS Justicia which lies in 70m off Malin Head Donegal Ireland, the diver lighting up the bow is Rene B Andersen, the Danish diver who won the Wrecks category with his shot of the HMS Audacious guns. Check out –http://underwaterphotographeroftheyear.com/winners/2019-winners/wrecks/1/