https://waterpixels.net/results/

Our Members Choice winners for September 2026 are in — counted from Showcase likes at midnight UTC on the 1st.

Members Choice (1st) — Photo By: Oceanic Paparazzi · 15 likes

2nd place — Photo By: jyuny1 · 12 likes

3rd place — Photo By: RickB · 12 likes

Thank you to everyone who shared work and liked photos this month. See the full podium and archive on Members Choice Results, and keep liking on Member Showcase Review.

https://waterpixels.net/results/

WaterPixels has always been about community—sharing work, comparing notes on gear, and celebrating images that stop you mid-scroll. We’ve refreshed the home page to put those images, conversations, and shared knowledge at the centre.

A home page built around the community

We’ve made more room for what makes WaterPixels yours:

• Featured photographs from the monthly Showcase, with photographer credits and a full-image viewer

• Our partners and affiliates

• Latest articles, community conversations, and the Showcase mosaic

• Clear paths into the forums, gallery, marketplace, and ways to support the community

We’ve also refreshed About, bringing together our story and the people who keep WaterPixels going: the team, partners, and supporting members.

It’s the same WaterPixels, with more of the community on show.

Members Showcase: how the monthly cycle works

At the heart of home is something the community already does well: enjoy each other’s photographs and choose which ones deserve the spotlight.

Here’s how to take part:

Upload to Showcase

Each calendar month, you can add up to five images to Showcase. Member albums stay personal and unlimited; Showcase is the shared monthly pool.

Review Showcase

Open Member Showcase Review, browse the photographs, and like those you’d love to see featured. You can also pass and move on to the next image. Your likes determine the results.

See the monthly placements

On the 1st of each month, we tally the previous month’s Showcase likes to determine first, second, and third place. First place earns Members Choice and leads the home-page hero. Second and third place rotate through the same space, each with full photographer credit.

The results come directly from members’ likes. A quieter month may have fewer placements, but every month is an opportunity to discover someone’s work and help it reach more people.

Upload a few favorites, spend a little time browsing, and give the photographs you admire a like. Together, you decide which images welcome everyone to WaterPixels.

Start here: Review Showcase

Partners, affiliates, and community support

We’re pleased to welcome OM System as our first affiliate partner, and we’re working to bring more affiliates and partners on board.

The refreshed site also introduces more advertising opportunities for brands that want to reach and support the underwater imaging community. If you’re interested in a partnership or advertising placement, please get in touch.

That support helps keep WaterPixels a free, worldwide home for underwater photography, video, gear discussions, travel, and the marketplace, with member images and conversations at its centre.

What we’d love from you

• Upload a few Showcase images this month.

• Review and like photographs you’d love to see featured.

• Explore About and tell us what feels right—and what still needs polish.

• Support the community however you can: shop, donate, share your knowledge, or simply join a conversation.

One passion. One community. Endless inspiration.

Members Choice is live — and we have our first podium.

Each month, Showcase likes decide 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. First place is Members Choice. Counts lock on the 1st of the next month, so the race stays fair.

Here are the winners for August 2026:

1st — Members Choice: bvanant · 6 Showcase likes
2nd: ACHiPo · 4 Showcase likes
3rd: Dave_Hicks · 4 Showcase likes

Congratulations to all three. These placements came from Showcase likes that month — so if you were out there liking photos you enjoy, you helped pick the podium.

See Members Choice Results — the full podium archive, including August and every month ahead.

How it works

• Open Member Showcase Review. The Review Queue is photos posted this month. Like the ones you want on the front page, or pass the rest. An empty queue means you are caught up for the month.

• Earlier Showcase photos are under All Photos. You can still like one, and that like counts for this month. You do not have to pass the older photos.

• On the 1st, we count the likes given during the month before and place 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Those likes lock. A photo you have not liked can still be liked in a later month.

• Winners appear on the home page, on Showcase, and in the Members Choice Results archive.

• If two photos have the same number of likes, the one that reached that count first places higher.

• A like also counts toward the yearly showcase. The yearly winner is the photo posted that year with the most likes on December 31.

Like what you love this month — the next Members Choice is already underway.

It’s your own public page — same idea as Linktree. One link with your name on it: cover photo, buttons, email, phone, and a photo gallery on the back.

The address is waterpixels.net/u/your-name

A web presence without building a website. If people use it, we may grow it later.

Slap a QR on a water bottle. Save it to your Home Screen like an app and send the link from your phone — tap to share, AirDrop, text, whatever you already do.

Your profile’s Link Card tab shows visits and which buttons got tapped. Private analytics, just for you.

Forums, Marketplace, and articles stay free and work the same. This is optional feature.

You can draft for free. 2 Ways to make Public...

1. $5 a year, paid on the site, makes it live. It auto-renews until you cancel.

Cancel anytime and the card stays active through the year you already paid for.

2. A separate donation made in the shop will also unlock for 1 year. After that year, you would subscribe direct on the Link Card page or donate in the shop again.

How to get yours

1. Open your profile page and click Link Card.

   

2. Hit Create Link Card. Add your name, photos, links, and contact. Watch the preview, then save.

3. It’s a draft. Only you can open the link until you publish.

4. Pay $5 when you’re ready to go public.

Give it a try in draft mode...

Questions, ask here.

Not sure if this truly a landmark or not, but thanks to all the activities of members, the 23,000th Waterpixels post was recorded today.

On a recent dive trip I met someone who is writing a dissertation on people who are 50+ and diving.

If you are interested in contributing, the following is a link to a simple questionnaire which takes about 5 minutes to complete. I've become paranoid about online scams, phishing etc. But this looks fine and I know the author - and the information gathered is pretty innocuous.

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=e3VPRDDLUkaTvMqNbR74E5Cna1DJ6d1KvM2oRz5_gAdUM0Y3UEpYTkZERDJON09aNENVSEs2V1ZOMS4u

We are proud to announce that the winner of the 2025 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year, Overall category, is our fellow member Ross Gudgeon for his photograph titled "Fractal Forest".

From the 2025 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year announcement:

The overall winning shot, Fractal Forest, skews perception and leaves us questioning reality with an inside-out view of a cauliflower soft coral, captured by Western Australian photographer Ross Gudgeon in the Lembeh Strait of North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Our judges remarked that the photograph gives us a unique perspective on coral, with the photographer taking us out of the marine habitat into a whole new world. There’s nothing fake here, but still we ponder, is this nature or a painting?

Technical details:

Inside-out view of a cauliflower soft coral. Named for its characteristic appearance that resembles a cauliflower, with numerous small, rounded, bump-like polyps that give it a puffy texture. This unique perspective was made possible by the Nauticam EMWL, an underwater version of the probe or insect eye lens.

Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS with Nauticam EMWL wet lens, 1/100, f/9, ISO 400, Sony A7RIV, handheld, 2 x Retra Pro flashes.

Here the competition winners announcement:

Maria , our very own Compact Camera Specialist, will be hosting an online “Getting Started in Underwater Photography” event with the Royal Photographic Society on Wednesday 16 July from 1800 hrs to 2000 hrs.

Maria will be sharing her experience over the past three years of shooting exclusively with smartphones, compact cameras, Insta 360s and Go Pros and promises to help inspire beginners capture their own vision to create award-winning content.  Her presentation will delve into the many different options of accessory lenses and lights from various manufacturers with the aim of helping people choose the best system for their needs.

Tickets are £35 for Non-Members or £26 for RPS Members which includes a free copy of Maria’s eBook “Getting Started in Underwater Photography” and free online ongoing support via Zoom or at her studio in Swanage.

Details are on the Royal Photographic Society’s website at

https://events.rps.org/en/4LrdQ66/rps-getting-started-in-underwater-photography-with-maria-munn-jul-2025-5a2NN29HgnF/overview

Waterpixels is delighted to announce that Maria Munn has joined the team as our Compact Systems Specialist.

For many years Maria has taught and specialised in producing amazing images using compact systems especially the Canon G series. She’s been looking too at action cameras and housed smartphone systems and has posted some really helpful guides and reviews.

A more detailed resume for Maria is on our About page. We’re sure members will welcome warmly her knowledge, experience and enthusiasm. Great to have you with us, Maria.

Waterpixels is delighted to report that Emperor Divers have joined our growing lists of industry supporters.

Since 1992 Emperor Divers have shared their experience of scuba diving in the Red Sea, Maldives and Indonesia and have  looked after thousands of happy divers – a great many of whom keeping coming back to us year after year.

Emperor's focus has always been on providing safe and sustainable diving holidays for everyone. Liveaboards, Resort Diving and PADI Courses are what they do. They cite ‘Must-do’ dive itineraries to include ‘Best of Maldives’ , ‘Red Sea Reefs & Wrecks’ and Indonesia’s ‘Komodo’, ‘Banda Sea’ and ‘Raja Ampat’.

Having dived with Emperor many times over several decades, I can heartily recommend them.

The team at Waterpixels are delighted to announce that our 1000th member, @Grega  joined the Waterpixels community on 15 March.  An especially warm welcome to Grega!

Thanks to all those who have signed up since we started in Dec 2023.  We reached our 500th member in February 2024 and have seen a continuous stream of people signing up since then. 

We'd like to thank members for continuing to engage so positively and in a great spirit of willingness to share and be helpful.  We're especially delighted that unpleasant exchanges continue to be few and far between, sadly a rarity on an online forum.  It's the contributions to the forum from members and their willingness to share experiences, ideas and advice that has allowed the site to continue growing so positively.   We look forward to everyone's ongoing contributions and to many new members coming onboard.

Great to have you all with us!