The winners of this year’s Underwater Photographer of the Year contest were just announced, and Renee Capozzola was named Underwater Photographer of the Year 2021 for her image of blacktip reef sharks cruising beneath seagulls at sunset in French Polynesia. Prizes and commendations were handed out in categories including Wide Angle, Macro, Wrecks, Behavior, Portrait, Black and White, Compact, Up and Coming, Marine Conservation, and more. Contest organizers were once again kind enough to share some of this year’s honorees with us below, with captions written by the photographers.
1. Double Turtle: Third Place, Black & White. This summer, snorkeling very early in the morning in Marsa Egla, Egypt, I often met the smaller and friendly hawksbill turtle in the bay. Enchanted by its elegant movements, I watched it for hours eating and breathing. I noticed that particular conditions of light and sea made perfect the reflection of its being on the surface.
Renata Romeo / UPY2021
2. Bowlander: Winner, Wrecks. Due to bad weather at Tiger Beach and in Bimini we had to look for shelter near Nassau in the Bahamas and do some regular dives. This wreck was totally new to me and a big surprise when we descended, as the bow is hanging almost completely over a sandy overhang.
Tobias Friedrich / UPY2021
3. Larval Lionfish: Runner-up, Macro. Drifting near the surface at night in over 700 feet of water, I came across this one-inch larval lionfish off the coast of Florida during a blackwater dive. In the Atlantic Ocean, lionfish are an invasive species and, unfortunately, finding the pelagic larvae is an all-too-common occurrence during these dives. This individual was exhibiting more beautiful coloration than usual and so I set out to try and capture its fins in full display.
Steven Kovacs / UPY2021
4. Sharks' Skylight: Overall Winner, and Category Winner. Wide Angle. In French Polynesia, there is strong legal protection for sharks, allowing them to thrive and balance in the marine ecosystem. In August 2020, I visited the island of Moorea, which was not only open to visitors but also happens to be my favorite place to photograph sharks. During this trip, I spent several evenings in the shallows at sunset, hoping to capture something unique. Instead of focusing on split-level images that I am known for, I decided to try something different. I envisioned and aimed to capture the sharks underwater with the sunset seen through Snell's window. It took many attempts, but on this particular evening the water was calm, the sharks came into a nice composition, and I got lucky with the birds as well.
Renee Capozzola / UPY2021
5. Gothic Chamber: Runner-up, Wide Angle. The Riviera Maya in Mexico hosts the world’s largest underground river systems filled with clear water, never-ending tunnels, and amazing halls with decoration that can compete with the best gothic cathedrals of the world. The challenge of capturing this beautiful hall in Cenote Monkey Dust was not only the huge dimensions but the fact that it is pitch black.
Martin Broen / UPY2021
6. Resplendence - Black-browed Albatross: Third Place, Up and Coming. I have been working on a series of split shots of the various species of albatross that visit Tasmanian waters for a few years now. Getting good eye contact as well as good feet symmetry is a challenge as they are generally quite shy birds. I use a very simple, inexpensive compact camera and do not use a wide angle dome or wet lens when taking these photos.
Danny Lee / UPY2021
7. Face to Face: Runner-up, Behavior. This is a picture of blennies in a fight. It is a species of chaenopsid blenny found around Japan and South Korea. Its most distinctive feature is its very cool "hairstyle," which is often referred to as punk blenny. In fact, this kind of blenny fight scene is very rare because they usually just stay in their lair and don't interact with other individuals. But during the breeding season, if an area is too densely populated, blennies will engage in fierce fights for a mate.
JingGong Zhang / UPY2021
8. Jellyfish Galore: Third Place, Wide Angle. In March 2020, I flew to Palau for two weeks of diving. When I was there, the borders closed because of COVID-19, so I was able to fly back only after three months. Dive sites where you could previously meet 50 people, I visited alone. I have been to the jellyfish lake four times before. Usually, a snorkeling session lasts 45 minutes due to the large number of tourists. But as I was alone, I could swim for three to four hours. Before the first dive, the guide told me: Swim to the center of the lake; there you will see jellyfish. In the center, I found only a dozen jellyfish and was upset. The second time, I took a drone with me and quickly flew around the entire lake. Millions of jellyfish gathered in a small group near the shore at the far end of the lake, which was about 500 meters away. I took the camera and swam. I had to work with fins for 20 minutes until I ended up in a real jellyfish soup.
Oleg Gaponyuk / UPY2021
9. Golden Hour at the Georgios G: Third Place, Wrecks. This split shot of the Georgios G shipwreck was taken in Neom, Saudi Arabia along the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea. In 1978, this large cargo ship from England became stranded on a shallow coral reef at night and then suffered from a large fire. Now serving as an artificial reef for many marine organisms, this wreck sits halfway out of the water on the bow side and over roughly 80 feet of water on the stern side.
Renee Capozzola / UPY2021
10. The Yellow Candy: Runner-up, Marine Conservation. During one of my trips to the sea, I noticed the strong presence of these yellow nets closed like candy. I could not understand their purpose. In the following days, with the help of some local fishermen, I discovered that the candy is the heart of a trap. It is filled with dead fish and inserted into another net. Thanks to the smell of the remains of dead fish, it attracts some small mollusks, which are unable to get out once inside. When the contents of the trap are recovered, the candy is often abandoned in the sea, contributing to plastic pollution and, as visible in the shot, to traps for other organisms.
Pasquale Vassallo / UPY2021
11. Grey Seal Gully: Third Place, British Waters Wide Angle. Grey seals are wonderful to photograph, but I particularly like this shot because of the background. My buddy showed me this pretty gully full of dead man's fingers and light coming down through kelp. I waited there for a little while, hoping a seal would turn up. In the end I only had one quick pass from one shy seal, but I was able to take this pleasing portrait.
Kirsty Andrews / UPY2021
12. A Striped Marlin in a High Speed Hunt in Mexico: Winner, Behavior. This is a terrifying scene for the small fish, fleeing for their lives as a striped marlin hunts them. The slightest mistake means life or death. There are often birds hunting from above and sometimes a dozen other marlin and sea lions attacking from all sides. Marlin are one of the fastest fish in the sea, terrifying predators for small fish in the great blue desert. I went to Mexico to document these feeding frenzies but was not expecting such a fast-paced hunt, almost too fast for my brain to process. For a brief moment, this scene unfolded before me and I had to rely on all my instincts and practice underwater to take this photo.
Karim Iliya / UPY2021
13. While You Sleep: Winner of British Underwater Photographer of the Year 2021, Winner of My Backyard, and Winner of British Waters Wide Angle. Malls Mire—a small woodland in Glasgow, between a housing estate, supermarket, and factory—is an unlikely haven for wildlife. As winter thaws, for a few nights each year one of its small muddy ponds comes alive with common frogs. I first photographed them here in 2018 and since that year, I've had this image in my head. It took another two years before I captured the little wonders that stir in the cold nights while the city sleeps. Using a temperamental remote shutter while combining long-exposure, backlighting, close-focus wide angle, and split photography meant I had to abandon any frustrations and try (and inevitably fail) for the 100th time to get it right. This final shot is a culmination of 25 hours over four nights of lying in darkness, covered in mud, waiting for nature's unpredictable elements to align. Time well spent? Absolutely.
Mark Kirkland / UPY2021
14. The Great Migration: Runner-up, British Waters Wide Angle. It’s the microscopic plankton that draws the massive basking shark up the west coast of Britain and into the narrow channel between the Isles of Coll and Tiree. While their migration is predictable, to share the water with them still requires that element of luck and to spend a late summer evening with them (in 2020, of all years) was a dream.
Mark Kirkland / UPY2021
15. Sunrise Mute Swan Feeding Underwater: Winner, British Waters Compact. I had been watching a couple of mute swans at my local lake. They seemed to be following people around, looking for food. I decided to attach a small weight to the back of my GoPro and threw it into the lake a short distance from me. The small weight would mean the GoPro always fell on its back, so I could shoot at an almost vertical angle. I had connected the GoPro to my Phone so I could remotely fire off images. The GoPro hitting the water had attached the swan's interest and they swam over. I waited until one of the swans was in the correct position and with its head underwater and shot a high-speed burst of images enabling me to capture this picture.
Ian Wade / UPY2021
16. Pelagic Stingray: Third Place, Compact. This image was taken in the summer, offshore from Bermeo, Spain, while doing a shark dive. Surrounded by three blue sharks, this pelagic ray appeared to check the bait. It was a very rare encounter. This animal has not been sighted before in these waters, and I too had never seen this animal before.
Isaías Cruz / UPY2021
17. Doule Near the Surface: Winner, Compact. I used to go fishing in the river to take some shots a few days after big rains, which made the riverbed go higher and caused some big floods. The current is strong but still available for free diving with dislodged plants, leaves, and branches. They bring a lot of colors, which showcase this plain New Caledonian carp, common in our rivers.
Jack Berthomier / UPY2021
18. Dream Ship: Third Place, Macro. When I dived at night and saw this jellyfish, it looked very cute. It looked like an alien creature had appeared in front of me. It has a lot of tentacles, so sometimes it looks very messy. But I really wanted to take a picture of his vertical tentacles, so I waited for a while and finally took the picture, but when I replayed the picture, I found two bugs on its body. They seemed to be taking a spaceship to go traveling in space. It was photographed near Anilao, Philippines.
Chien-Ting Hou / UPY2021
19. Hold Tight: Runner-up, British Waters Compact. On this day last summer, the conditions were perfect. Calm sea, clear visuals, and fantastic underwater scenery meant it was like diving through a spectacular underwater meadow. There were so many tiny stalked jellyfish clinging to the bootlace weed. The ambient light was stunning, sunshine beaming through the long strands of bootlace. It was photographed in Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset, England.
Sandra Stalker / UPY2021
20. Rainbow Goby: Runner-up, Compact. When I was underwater with this hairy panda goby, it was very shy, and it took a long time to be comfortable enough to pop its head out.
ManBd / UPY2021