The 14th annual Ocean Art, the world’s leading underwater photography competition, awards 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.
The Ocean Art competition has been running since 2010, and Kovacs has won or been placed in his category every year! However, this is the first time he has been judged Best in Show.
The Winners
Jeon Min Seok captured the birth of a seahorse after diving nightly from midnight in Japan. He said “Among the macro subjects, seahorses are relatively large and have poor vision, so I captured the moment when a baby seahorse comes out of my father’s stomach using a 35mm macro lens with a wide field of view and a continuous shooting function.
First place in the cold water category went to James Ferrara. He photographed a freediver beneath frozen Lake Huron (Ontario, Canada), with only one way out from beneath the delicate textures and intricate patterns of the ice.
Cuba is home to one of the last abundant populations of sharks in the Caribbean and Byron Conroy took this fabulous shot at sunset with the surface patrolling silky sharks.
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.
Kirsty Andrews is another repeat winner in Ocean Art. Of this stunning shot she said
“The pink in this photograph is the made up of the eggs of a Spanish dancer (Hexabranchus sanguineus), forming beautiful coils aptly named ‘Ocean roses’. In prime position within the curls is the much smaller nudibranch Favorinus tsuruganus, which feeds on the eggs of other sea slugs, such as these. “
Over $60,000 in Prizes
Winners can choose their own prizes from over 60 on offer. Best in Show Steven Kovacs got first pick and chose an 8 night dive trip to Ambon, Indonesia with Spice Island Divers. Other prizes included a 7-night dive trip for two to Papua New Guinea, 9-night liveaboard trip in Raja Ampat or Komodo, many other dive trips and also underwater camera equipment and gift certificates.
Thousands of Entries across 14 Categories
Thousands of entries were submitted from photographers across more than 90 countries. Categories included: Wide Angle, Macro, Marine Life Behavior, Portrait, Nudibranchs, Cold Water, Blackwater, Underwater Conservation, Underwater Digital Art, Black & White, Underwater Fashion, Compact Wide Angle, Compact Macro and Compact Behavior. For both professional and amateur underwater photographers.
List of Winners
Suliman Alatiqi, Kirsty Andrews, Luis Arpa Toribio, Akira Asahina, Paolo Bausani, Vadim Belakhov, Jack Berthomier, Don Bouchard, Bruce Campbell, Pedro Carrillo, Haemi Cho, Mark Chivers, Ysabela Coll, Conor Culver, Pietro Cremone, Megan Dente, Patrick Désormais, Paul Eijkemans, Alessandro Fantin, James Ferrara, Mehmet Gungen, Theresa Guise, Bruce Hall, Galice Hoarau, Tom Ingram, Marty Jung, George Kao, Kazuhiro Katano, Lilian Koh, Steven Kovacs, Celia Kujala, Marco Lausde, Alex Lindbloom, Will Luckock, Imogen Manins, Julio Martínez, Giancarlo Mazarese, Kevin McCown, Wojtek Meczynski, Dan Mele, Andrea Michelutti, Jeffrey Milisen, Jeon Min Seok, Nicholas More, Mohd Shakir, Shunsuke Nakano, Elio Nicosia, Cassie Pali, Thomas Pavy, Pierre-Benoît Querton, Lena Remy, Yoichi Sato, Brian Skjerven, Daniel Sly, Enrico Somogyi, Anton Sorokin, Michal Stros, Jo Taylor, Simon Temple, Sarah Teveldal, Franco Tulli, Allison Vitsky, Claudia Weber-Gebert, Devyn Winner, Wen Chou Wu, Katherine Zhou.
You can see all the winning photos at the Underwater Photography Guide
