A
little late but as this is our first issue of 2026: A Happy
New Year. To start the year, some fabulous winning shots in the Ocean
Art photo contest.
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Winners announced for Ocean Art underwater photography contest: Blind man’s photo takes 4th prize
Ocean Art, the world’s leading underwater photography competition, yesterday awarded Best in Show to Steven Kovacs for his image “Tired Fish”.
Kovacs spent nearly two weeks searching for a rarely documented larval goosefish, capturing a fleeting moment when the elusive subject opened its mouth toward the camera – offering a rare glimpse into deep-sea life few people ever see.
Blind Man wins Photo Prize
Bruce Hall’s photo of of giant kelp, Macrocycstis pyrifera, only won 4th place but it was my favourite in the macro category. And even more astounding is that Hall has been been legally blind since birth. He can see shapes and colour and contrast, but no hard lines unless within 4 or 5 inches of the subject. Hall took this photo in the 1990s using a Nikonos V: film not digital.
Open to amateurs and professionals
The contest is not only open to professional underwater photographers, there are three categories for the rest of us with compact cameras: Compact Wide Angle, Compact Macro and Compact Behaviour.
Andrea Michelutti won first place in the Compact Macro category with his capture of tiny sea snail (Cystiscus minutissimus) on a ribbon of nudibranch eggs. It measures barely 2 millimeters, almost invisible to the naked eye. He used a Sony RX100 M7 with a Marelux housing.
Taken around the world
Most of the winning photos were taken in the southern hemisphere, notably Indonesia with 17 winners. This shot though, awarded second place in the Compact Wide Angle category, was taken in Marsa Alam in Egypt by Enrico Somogyi. He used a Sony RX100vi and a Raynox Circular Fisheye Lens to shoot this colourful Klunziger’s wrasse.
The area with the most prize winning entries, with no less than seven awards, was Anilao in the Philippines.
In this photo, by Giancarlo Mazarese, a female Argonaut and her near-perfect reflection face each other on the water’s surface. She is not alone: a crab larva (megalopa) shares her leafy raft. Observed during a shallow blackwater dive just at the surface of the water in Anilao.
All the winning photos
You can see all the winning photos at the competition organisers the Underwater Photography Guide, or on our news site.
Diving news from around the World
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Photo credits: Tim Nicholson, Jill Studholme, CC BY 4.0, John A. Anderson, Carol Buchanan/DepositPhotos, Robinson/Bigstock, divebooker.com
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CONTACTING THE EDITOR
Please send your letters or press releases to:
Jill Studholme
SCUBA News
The Cliff
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UK
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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)
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