Your Favourite Photo of 2008

Firstly I'd like to say how good everyones pics are and thank you for sharing them with us.

Here is my favourite pic for 2008.

I know its not to the same standard as most, but for me as a novice I like it.

It was taken on a safety stop in Crystal Bay, Bali. Our safety stop was in the middle of a Thermocline and I thought I'd just experiment with a few shots taken through the haze of the thermocline. Although it lacks a complete focus, I seem to think that it almost looks like the corals and fish in the centre of the picture are from a painting. It's for this reason that I think it's different and my favourite pic for 2008. Hopefully someone else will agree with me.

Lastly, I'd like to thank everyone one who has given me advice, answers and added confusion to all that I've asked this year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

A great memory of a good couple of days out.

2008 has been a good year; many great shots for me and lots of good memories. Lots of time spent diving with new friends I've met directly or indirectly through Wetpixel.
Our favorite shots are not always the most technically perfect, but often those that do more on a personal emotional level. I do two very different things in my underwater photography - in a pool studio, it's all about visualization and control, in the wild it's all about trying to show something the way I saw and wondered at it.

In my pool work I've made progress in setting up my 'studio' and I have lots of ideas for 2009 with some pool shoots already scheduled for January. Here's one that shows some control of lighting and control by my excellent model.

Image removed at the request of the photographer

In the wild, my favorite shot; is of the same subject as Carol's manatees. I think one of the hardest things to do underwater is to tell a story, unless it's something obvious like a dead finned shark.
For me the composition of this image tells the story of an ever watchful mommy manatee hanging in the background as her little one curiously checks me out.
Sun streaming through the water just the way I saw it, another difficult thing to convey underwater.
I'm also very pleased that the image is 100% available light, and my first outing with the D700.

Don't post many images - but here is one because of the background story.

We were on the Wetpixel JASC trip in June and Jim says "Hey I have a great idea, lets do a night dive with the sharks (and bait - obviously - Jim does not seem to enter the water without bait).

So the simple minded of us gave it a go - unfortunately Alex Mustard had a prior engagement to wash his hair that night and declined - it was a great dive and one among many great dives on that one trip.

So thanks to all involved.

Paul C

I wan in Pemuteran on a very shallow dive near the pier which not many people go to but turns out it is a great muck/macro site. The viz was not so great and 70 minutes through the dive spotted this sea horse. It took me another 15 minutes to get this shot as it was only in 3 mtrs of water with a lot of sand flotaing about and quite an effort to get your body down to the correct angle without scaring the sea horse, which kept moving constantly. It was also the first time i saw one. I was quite pleased with this result.

I am overwhelmed with the quality of pictures posted here. Just takes your breath away.

Cheers,

Diggy

Hi all

Its fantastic to be able to 'relive' every ones favourite shots. Like a few others, this is not my best shot but I like it because its a bit different. After the day's dive, I spent a few hours lying in the rock pools to see what secret critters were lurking around. I was trying to get a shot of this rock skipper when he darted into a hole. I then realised that I could get a shot of the fish and its reflection on the under side of the waters surface. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Happy Yuletide to all.

This is the one i liked most from this year , it reminds me the great time i spent with the blacktips during 3 days diving among them in KZN , South Africa . I went for the tigers and didn't saw any of them but at the end the blacktips made my days. This one was my last picture on my last day .

This is my favorite of 2008. I had just completed a cave dive at Ginnie Springs and as I looked up I saw the tannic water from the river contrasting with the crystal clear water coming out of the cave. The photo was taken as I had my legs wrapped around the "deco log" at the Devil's Ear entrance to the cave system to keep from being blown to the surface from the high flow.

Hello,

Here's my best one of this year. It was taken during a night dive in Sharm El Naga (Red Sea - Egypt).

This was my first night dive during this trip with my new SLR equipment (D70 - Ikelite - 1x DS125).

It was really a magic moment to see this spanish dancer dancing in the water.

I think I was lucky enough to take this shot as well.

I take the opportunity to thank everybody who post on this forum. You guys gave me the desire to buy this (expensive) equipment.

But it's really worth it (but I still think this hobby is made for crazy people, isn't it ? )

I wish everybody a very nice Christmas time and look forward to maybe dive with some of you in 2009 (who knows, though I haven't see many Belgian people around here ). Anyway, I wish all of you a fantastic 2009 !

What a great collection of images! I'm honored to be associated with this terrific group - if only in a virtual way.

My New Year's resolution is to meet SOMEONE from Wetpixel in the flesh in 2009.

I'm right across the GW Bridge. Wanna go look at the tree? I don't ice skate. It's too dangerous.

I'm right across the GW Bridge. Wanna go look at the tree? I don't ice skate. It's too dangerous.

Sure! ... but I'm out of town until January 5th ... I'll definitely be in touch when I get back! I'll shoot you a PM.

Here are two of mine from this year. I like to think of the addage, don't shoot till you see the whites of their eyes.

Oh my goodness, Walt, how intimidating! Both shots are stunning but the whale shot is a stunner. Now for my humble entry. I like it because it's wide angle (I spend most of my time shooting smaller than 1:1), it's actually Lembeh Straight, (not telling where), and I was talking the night before how much I'd like a chance to shoot Golden Sweepers again. My dive guide Opo always knew what I wanted to shoot without ever telling him.

Happy Holidays to everyone, and may 2009 bring you all the photo opportunities of which you dream, and a magazine to publish them in.

Cheers,

Marli

What a great collection of images! I'm honored to be associated with this terrific group - if only in a virtual way.

 

My New Year's resolution is to meet SOMEONE from Wetpixel in the flesh in 2009.

I thought that might get you to pop up ... If we don't meet up in 2009, we are both jacka**es.

Hope you are well and I look forward to sharing a beer with you in the New Year ... and hopefully a dive or two.

My favourite because it was my first dive in Yap and Mike Veitch and Eric Cheng were there to see it occur. After they have been there two weeks hoping for a close encounter like this I felt fortunate to have a connection with this manta. Valerina-the manta, seemed to be quite interested in me and my camera and seemed to pose for me and almost wait for the strobes to recycle so I could take more images. What a dive!

Cheers

Todd

What kind of whales are those, Walt? Marli, what a stunning image.

I thought that might get you to pop up ... If we don't meet up in 2009, we are both jacka**es.

 

Hope you are well and I look forward to sharing a beer with you in the New Year ... and hopefully a dive or two.

to that Jeremy

It's hard to pick but here's one of my favorites from this year.

Bonaire - Bonaventure, June 2008

Russ Sanoian (Backscatter) was diving on the boat with us, and when I got to this spot on the reef, Russ just happened to be in the perfect spot.

Joel Penner

Newmediasoup, LLC Underwater Imaging

Shot with a Canon 5D, 15mm, Inon z240's.