As 2023 draws to a close it is nice to look back at our diving and photography over the last 12 months with the traditional Favourite Image thread. 

This is a thread for your favourite shots. Not necessarily your best! It is the picture you like the most - please share it and tell everyone why it is special to you. Go! 

Alex

 

Another tradition of this thread is cheating - by posting multiple images! 

Here is my favourite shot: 

Which is my favourite because this was my favourite dive of the year. It was just one of those moments when the underwater was truly stunning. I was at Raw Mohammed in the Red Sea and seemingly had the place to myself, with great schools moving through and a beautiful reef. 

Photo taken with Sony A1 and 28-60mm. Nauticam housing, Nauticam WWL-1B. 2 x Retra Pro Max flashes. 1/200th @ f/11. 

I even have a photo of me on the dive - thanks Nick.

In the spirit of cheating - I've also recorded a video running through all my favourites from 2023, if you want to see more photos:

Alex

 

Edited December 23, 20231 yr by Alex_Mustard

Hey everyone

Here are 2 pics I really like from 2023

The first one is a favorite because it reminds me of the first time I swam with a whale shark. First time I had a scuba trip abroad (Maldives)  

It was a breath taking moment  (literally - I am a terrible free diver) - and I had a bonus : Only when I saw the picture on my computer - I noticed a shark few meters beneath us.

The second  picture (yes, I'm cheating too..) has a special meaning for me: This is from the first time my son and I scuba dived together. Wow, what an experience!

 

(Nikon Z7 2 Nikon 8-15 lens Isotta housing . The first without strobes - the second with two)

Edited December 23, 20231 yr by Ido

My first leafy sea dragon I found after moving to South Australia, I was very excited to finally see one. They're very shy and tend to turn away from you when you approach, so I got very lucky with this portrait.

 

R5, 15-35mm, 2 x Z330s

Southern Right Whales
Sony A1, WACP-1, 14m 1.8GM and ambient light (I reduced the image size/resolution as each original is 30mb+)
Shot under special permit issued by the Argentine government

Edited December 24, 20231 yr by Lasongo

With some coaching from our guide while diving at Atmosphere Resort on the Dauin coast, I was able to spot this Kuro Sapsucking Slug on my own.

 

Rather intimidating to post after these great images, but as this is about personal favourites, I'll add mine. 

This year was not very successful for me, after we arrived at the Red Sea, I dived into an Egyptian hospital bed with appendicitis. Back at home the viz was bad. Fortunately at the last dive the water was clear enough for a smooth green background. Nice to combine with the soft pastel colours we often see in northern waters.

Olympus E-M5 iii with a Panasonic 45mm. Two INON 330-2 flashes. 1/160 @ f/13.

One of my favorites is photo of a skeleton shrimp I took during the Belgian photography championship. It took me a lot of patience to first find a subject in a perfect position and then get the lighting right with almost no backscatter (no postprocessing allowed in the shoot-out). I probably spend more than an hour on this shot, but the result was certainly worth it!

Nikon D7000 and 105mm macro, backscatter miniflash and snoot, 1/320s @ f/32

The second one is a photo of a nudibranch (Polycera quadrilineata) on a hydroid (Tubularia indivisa). Both species are rather common around spring in the Eastern Scheldt (Netherlands), but I was very lucky to spot them together. Getting them both in focus and positioning the snoot was very challenging because I had very little space to maneuver. Even while nudibranches are not exactly fast moving, this nice composition didn't last very long. Sometimes you just have to lucky to be at the right place at the right time!

Nikon D7000 and 60mm macro, Sea & Sea YS-110 alpha with home made fiber optic snoot, 1/320s @ f/22

Happy to see that Waterpixels is such a great success. 
 

Just from this week

1 hour ago, fruehaufsteher2 said:

 

Happy to see that Waterpixels is such a great success. 

 

So far, so good. The response has been terrific. 

17 hours ago, Jef Driesen said:

positioning the snoot was

Home made snoot? We need a picture, Jef!

USS Kittiwake on a pleasant February morning.  My friend and I had it to ourselves that day.  

Edited December 25, 20231 yr by Roadtrips Of Unusual Size

This is probably my favorite photo of 2023. The main reason is the cool subject in it. Marine Iguana was one of the top items in my bucket list. In 2023 i have been so fortunate to dive with them in Galapagos.

Nikon D850, 105mm macro+Nauticam EMWL 160, 2 x Inon Z330 strobes

Edited December 25, 20231 yr by Mehmet GUNGEN

 

Taken in "La Gravière du Fort".

A pond in Alsace, France, near Strasbourg, managed by and dedicated to divers.
Not as cool as some exotic places, but only one hour from home, and many friends there.

Olympus EM-1 mkII with Olympus 8mm Fisheye in Nauticam housing and 2x Retra Pro Xnull

Well I didn't get to do a lot a travel with starting a new company but we have lots of plans for next year. I have a few great photos but this one stands out for me. Not that it's award winning or even publishable. I just like how it looks. It was taken during a night dive in Kona Hi. 

 

Well I'm going to cheat a little as well, my dive trip this year in November fell through due to the Ulawan volcano going off and forcing cancellation of my connecting flight from Port Moresby to New Britain .

So I'm going back to my Nov 2022 trip to Rowley Shoals, which I first booked for 2020 and was postponed twice due to the pandemic.  Rowley Shoals is 300km offshore from Broome in West Australia on the edge of the continental shelf.  The corals out there were in great shape and on some days the water amazing clear, we had at least 50m of vis on some days.

These two frames were taken about 30 seconds apart at 18 and 20m and in the second frame a sunball is apparent at 20m depth.

This one is at 20m depth:

This snapshot shows how clear the water was, taken at another site called Waypoint 3043, I'm hovering at a depth of 12m and the bottom is at about 25m. Visibility was at least 50m.  The superb vis and isolation were what made this site special.  We were on a boat with 18 passengers and the only divers in the water.  You can only travel out there in October-November each year.

Shots with EM-1 MkII in Nauticam housing, Panasonic 8mm fisheye, INON Z-240 strobes.

Here's my favorite shot of the year.  During a long underwater swim back to shore after having explored the main attraction at a local dive site, my buddy and I came across several of these Aleutian Moonsnails.  We took a few shots of them and some neighboring nudiranchs before continuing our trip back to shore.  I didn't think much of it at the time, my mind split between the main dive site and the annoying amount of water between us and shore.

In reviewing shots from the dive, this was one of the only few keepers from the dive.  And, as it turns out, my favorite from 2023.

Edited December 27, 20231 yr by wlkerboh

Beautiful photos at display here!

I just cannot decide wich one I like most, I was so excited with my new camera in 2023 (A7R5). I have to cheat and put in  three photos (all made on the Red Sea workshop with Alex in June/July 2023):

SS Thistlegorm: practically no current and very good vis allowed to take a panorama from the stern. Canon 8-15mm fisheye @15mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 1000, no strobe:

 

And here Lisi in the SS Dunraven, coming towards me and separate the enormous school of glassfishes inside. I love the circular fisheye look and this was such a good occasion. Canon 8-15mm fisheye @8mm, 1/5s, f/13, ISO 500, 2*Z330 strobes:

 

A macro, taken at Gubal island. The big eyes of the squirrelfish make it look like a character from a Japanese cartoon. Sony 90mm macro, 1/200s, f/16, ISO 100, 2*Z330 strobe:

 

 

And here an extra cheater: MY Ghazala Explorer at sunset near Ras Muhammed. Canon 8-15mm fisheye @8mm, 1/125s, f/22, ISO 800, 2*Z330 strobes:

 

All the best in 2024 too you All and great success to Waterpixel!

Wolfgang

 

Edited December 27, 20231 yr by Architeuthis

My favorite pictures of the year. Not for being stuning, just because I think those are pictures that every single photographer wants to have on his portfolio.

All of them were taken in my last trip to Tulamben last october

 

 

My favorite pic this year is rom a dive in a local quarry. My wife and son didn't want to join me for a dive there (as almost always) because "it's cold and there's only dead wood and no fish". I found a buddy through the social media site of a local dive center and we enojoyed a really cool dive. A storm had broken off some branches from the trees just a few days before and that made the scenery a bit "surreal" in places. I'm cheating a bit but just to add a picture for the "feeling" of that dive.

 

The favorite pic is the last one I took on that day, just before we were getting out - a simple look along the edge. I like it because of the landscape and because I accidentally even had a very small pike in it (see if you can find it). Technically, the shot is a horribly underexposed mess, but I was astonished how much I could pull it up from the raw-file.

 

I'm giving a second life to old photography gear for my attemps at underwater shooting. This is an Olympus E-PL5 in the PT-EP05L housing (fits with some customization), the 14-42 RII kit zoom and an Inon UWL-H100 wetlens without the dome (let me know if you have a dome to sell!) 

Edited December 28, 20231 yr by Klaus
typo

I seem to have a thing for Scorpionfish... I am sure it arose from obliging the kids with a picture every time they saw one!  Many shots later, I've still not got "the one" as their camouflage makes them buggers to separate from the background. This pic is my favourite not because it's technically brilliant, but because it reminded me about "being there", and setting up the shot to get some depth.  

On the day in question, conditions had made diving impossible until late afternoon, and the viz wasn't great.  The fish was initially lying on the coral in the background, and I couldn't get a good angle on it. After a few shots, I moved on - then my partner pointed, and I turned to see the fish repositioning in a much more suitable place into a position that let me flatter it much more effectively.  Just wish the sulphur damsel near it had swum back into shot for a bit of extra drama and colour. 

4000 miles from the motherlode so grabbed a favorite from my website. 130° EMWL used to get this close up of a collector urchin, a common species in Hawaii but a challenge to get a decent shot of (ie., showing multiple details such as pedicellaria, tube feet, and spines). Taken off Waikiki where I made a pit stop en route to Palau.

 

Edited December 28, 20231 yr by Tom Kline
completion

Whilst not a photo I took, it is a photo of me at Koh Haa looking to take photos, but is my favourite of this year

The credit for the photo goes to Matt Pearson @ Sub-Motion www.sub-motion.com

The photo that speaks to me the most for 2023: in my garden, the Calanques national park, Marseille. 
This duo of intertwined moray eels looks at me gently.
August 23 - Canon R7/Nauticam/ Canon 60 ef-s & 2 Retra pro

Edited December 29, 20231 yr by Flo

For 2023 for me it has to be a Yellowline Arrowcrab. I had so much fun during the year shooting these with a snoot.