JANUARY MASTERS
GROUP SHOTS – ANY LENS – Schools, bait balls, aggregations, small or large groups. Shot must be of a group of 4 or more individuals of the same species.
JANUARY CHALLENGERS
FRONT PORTRAITS – ANY LENS – Must be symmetrical evenly-lit critter or fish faces, snoots welcome, concentrating on good eye contact. Both eyes must be in the frame and should be looking at the camera.
FEBRUARY MASTERS
BEAUTIFUL BACKGROUNDS BY NATURE – ANY LENS – Isolate a subject against a beautiful natural background (sponge or soft coral for example). Background to be natural and not colored by a slate or other artificial lights. No open water blue or black backgrounds.
Submission Deadline: February 2nd
FEBRUARY CHALLENGERS
UGLY BUT BEAUTIFUL – ANY LENS – Dedicated to those animals with an ugly face but beautiful as subjects. Composition is key.
Submission Deadline: February 2nd
MARCH MASTERS
PIPEFISH & PIPEHORSES – ANY LENS – A uniquely difficult animal to get a good shot of. NO seahorses. NO sea dragons from Australia.
Submission Deadline: March 2nd
MARCH CHALLENGERS
HELLO/GOODBYE – ANY LENS – Any marine creature appearing to be waving hello or good-bye.
Submission Deadline: March 2nd
APRIL MASTERS
FACING AWAY – ANY LENS – Show us your best butt shot, but make it a good one where the creature is looking on to something – making the most of a butt shot – non human of course – contemplative.
Submission Deadline: March 30th
APRIL CHALLENGERS
DIAGONAL COMPOSITION – ANY LENS – Wide angle or macro composition showing use of diagonal lines to draw your eye through the image.
Submission Deadline: March 30th
MAY MASTERS
SNOOT-OLOGY – ANY LENS – Snooted image. Open to any subject. Must be as shot in camera, not produced in post processing.
Submission Deadline: May 4th
MAY CHALLENGERS
NATURAL LIGHTING – ANY LENS – Ambient light, no strobes.
Submission Deadline: May 4th
JUNE MASTERS
A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW– ANY LENS – Capturing a shot of a common subject but in a more interesting perspective or creative point of view, but not using software to embellish. Looking for images compositionally interesting – not snooted or manipulated.
Submission Deadline: June 1st
JUNE CHALLENGERS
MINIMAL – ANY LENS – Less is more; focus is on non-busy backgrounds, isolated subjects that are exceptional and beautiful.
Submission Deadline: June 1st
JUNE VIDEO CONTEST
BEST SINGLE VIDEO CLIP – FISH BEHAVIOR – One continuous video clip not to exceed 30 seconds. May add music and title, but no merging of multiple clips.
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Must be shot underwater with any video camera, camcorder, DSLR, or GoPro.
May add music, title and music credits.
May add a 2 second black “lead-in” and a 2 second black “lead-out” to allow for title and music credits. Maximum length of the video if using “lead-in” and “lead-out” to be 34 seconds.
Minimal global color correction allowed.
NO other editing allowed.
NO combining of multiple video clips.
NO speeding up or slowing down of footage.
NO narration.
Videos to be kept anonymous. No identifying name or watermarks.
Video must be submitted in VIMEO format.
Go to Video Contest for more instructions.
Submission Deadline: June 1st
JULY MASTERS
GUARDIANS AT THE GATE – ANY LENS – Any image that conveys a sense of protective behavior. Doesn’t have to be just eggs. Anything from a goby guarding the eggs to dolphins guarding a baby, a fin over another, etc.
Submission Deadline: June 29th
JULY CHALLENGERS
SEAHORSE BEAUTY – ANY LENS – Finding the beauty is one thing, capturing a great shot of one of these animals is difficult because of their shyness and rotating eyes. Your job should you accept this challenge is to show us a beautifully-captured rendition.
Submission Deadline: June 29th
AUGUST MASTERS
WILD MOVEMENT – ANY LENS – Any photo that makes you think of a storm, wind or strong currents, its violent and unpredictable movement. The key is that there must be an indication of movement. Over/Unders welcome but not necessary -image tells a story of the trials of living underwater in current.
Submission Deadline: August 3rd
AUGUST CHALLENGERS
POLKA DOT FISH – ANY LENS – Must be fish that have noticeable round or roundish spots of a different color than the background skin color. Ex: Stargazers, trunkfish, pajama cardinalfish, juvenile barramundi, etc.
Submission Deadline: August 3rd
SEPTEMBER MASTERS
OUR AMAZING PLANET – ANY LENS – Share your most amazing or favorite underwater creature taken this year (2019).
Submission Deadline: August 31st
SEPTEMBER CHALLENGERS
MACRO ABSTRACTIONS – MACRO – Abstract textures that capture color and forms of beauty that are not usually perceived with the naked eye.
Submission Deadline: August 31st
OCTOBER MASTERS
MANTIS ‘TUDE – ANY LENS – Mantis shrimps have the ability to be a scary creature, but also quite inquisitive. Capture the attitude of the mantis shrimp.
Submission Deadline: September 28th
OCTOBER CHALLENGERS
HORRORVILLE – ANY LENS – Show us your scary, looking for menacing shots … what is Halloween underwater to you? (No mantis shrimp).
Submission Deadline: September 28th
OCTOBER VIDEO CONTEST
CREATURE FEATURE – Edited video featuring a single animal or type of animal. Maximum 2 minutes.
Submission Deadline: September 28th
NOVEMBER MASTERS
BEST COVER SHOT – ANY LENS – Select your best …must be a vertical with sufficient negative space for copy. Cropped images OK.
Submission Deadline: November 2nd
NOVEMBER CHALLENGERS
GOLIATH GROUPER – ANY LENS – Your best Goliath Grouper shot.
Submission Deadline: November 2nd