Winners of Amateur Underwater Photography Contest

Each spring, the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science organizes an underwater photography contest open to amateur photographers who earn no more than 20 percent of their income from photography. Started in 2005, the contest has grown in popularity drawing entrants from across the globe. This year over 700 entries were submitted from participants located in 23 countries.

Photographs are judged in five separate categories: Fish or Marine Animal Portrait, Macro, Wide Angle, Student, and Best Overall. The winning images are announced at one of the Rosenstiel School’s Sea Secrets lectures and are displayed in a traveling exhibit throughout the South Florida community.

The following photo by Kyle McBurnie, from California, own this year’s contest. The beautiful beastie is a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) in a kelp forest at Cortes Bank, about 100 miles west of San Diego, California.

Fan Favorite
Pietro Cremone, Italy
Mating Mandarin dragonets (Synchiropus splendidus) photographed in Puerto Galera, Philippines.

Macro 1^st Place
Beth Watson, Missouri
An anemone shrimp in Puerto Galera, Philippines.

Macro 2^nd Place
Douglas Good, Pennsylvania
An emperor shrimp (Periclimenes imperator) on two nudibranches (Risbecia tryoni) at Dinah's Beach, Papua New Guinea.

Macro 3^rd Place
Frederica Bambi, Italy
A porcelain crab (Neopetrolisthes maculatus) on an anemone at Pescador Island, Cebu, Philippines.

Wide-angle 1^st Place
Alex Tattersall, United Kingdom
A lionfish on the Thistlegorm wreck in the Red Sea, Egypt.

Wide-angle 2^nd Place
Joseph Tepper, New York
Spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) in a small inlet off the Kona coast, Hawaii.

Wide-angle 3^rd Place
Pietro Cremone, Italy
Raccoon butterfly fish and angelfish on a reef in the Red Sea, near Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.

Fish or Marine Animal Portrait 1^st Place
Steven Kovacs, Florida
A juvenile lionfish during a night dive in Roatan, Honduras.

Fish or Marine Animal Portrait
2^nd Place
Marcello DiFrancesco, Italy
The greater blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena lunulata)near Malapascua island, Philippines.

Fish or Marine Animal Portrait
3^rd Place
Judy Townsend, Florida
A male Dusky Jawfish with his clutch of eggs at the Blue Heron Bridge in Riviera Beach, Florida.

Best Student Entry
Laura Rock, Florida
Goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) during the annual spawning event in Jupiter, FL.

Student 2^nd Place
Laura Rock, Florida
Great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) in Bimini, Bahamas.

Student 3^rd Place
Austin Gallagher, Florida
Oceanic white tip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) near Cat Island, Bahamas.

via Huffingtonpost