Your Favourite Photo of 2008

Not necessarilly my "best" photo, but the combination of a decent shot and a great experience makes this probably my favorite. Taken a bit over a month ago at Sipadan when we ran across the humphead parrotfish school feeding above us during the middle of a wall dive (the wall was soon forgotten).

Eric Lemar

http://www.rubescens.com

This was a good year for me for diving and photography. in addition to my usual forays to the Channel Islands, I managed three dive trips! I dove in Cozumel, Alaska, and Guadalupe Island. It is tricky to only pick one image, but if I had to, it would probably be this Steller Sea Lion pup. The image isn't technically perfect, but it makes me and my wife smile. I love the whites of his eyes. Enjoy (and click on him for more details).

I was diving in Hood Canal in Puget Sound and came across a couple of Lion's Mane Jellys with their tentacles stretched way out. I was excited to be able to photograph them, but when I dowloaded the pics to my computer you could see every piece of debris in the water column. I was very disappointed. I liked the compostition of this one, so I used photoshop to obscure the debris and it has turned out to be a favorite for this year. By the way I feel priviliged to see everyone's photos. Pat Gunderson

Hi Tristan!

This is a fantastic photo! Think the videographer brings in a lot of scale to the anti-aircraft gun. On the first, it looked like he was your model, simmulating shooting with the gun! Almost unbeleavable that a diver on his first wreckdive is able to take such a nice image!

Congratulations and Keep up the good work!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and all other members on Wetpixel! :-)

PS: Don't know what happend, but this post was meant to be related to the post from Tristans beautifull image of the Thistlegorm. Perhaps one of the moderators can move it to the place were it belong? :-)

Many thanks to all the Wetpixelers that have shared their knowledge on this site, it has been an invaluable source of information and inspiration.

Here is one of my favorites underwater photos this year (my first year of diving). It was taken in October, the second day after getting my PADI Adv Open water ticket. It was my first wreck dive and also the first time I had strapped the dome on the front of the camera. I would have preferred it if the Videographer was not hanging on the back of the Anit-Aircraft gun, but there you go.

 

 

 

Thanks .... and

 

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

 

 

Tristan

 

Thanks Stew

Sorry, I already posted this in another post ( http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=27976 ) and it can be deleted from there, but here goes..

What a great colletction of photos. Some of them quite amazing.

Here is my favorite 2008 with minor text:-)

As far as I know this crack hasn´t been explored before and definitely not photographed.

The whole area is quite exotic and one of a kind. Positioned in the midst of Kelduhverfi at the bottom of Oxarfjördur, with the national park in Jökulsárgljúfur and the famous Ásbyrgi nearby. The day before our trip we contacted the landowner to explain our plans, fortunately he was almost as excited as we were but emphasized that diving in his land was totally at our own risk. By 9 in the morning after we stood in front of the farm in such wonderful weather. His daughter guided us to the cracks witch we had passed a few minutes earlier without noticing them, positioned on both sides along the road to the farm.

To begin with our hopes went sour because of the amount of sediment afloat in the biggest crack. But with some exploration in the area we found one bit with especially clear water, similar to the famous lake at Thingvellir with Silfra crack as a favorite spot for many divers. The formation of the area here is of the same geological sort as in Thingvellir, lying on the North-Atlantic Ridge where the North-American and Eurasian plates drift apart. The water is very cold, varying from 2-6°C. The crack is divided by rock slips in several places. In the south end we could swim under the hanging rocks into quite small and shallow bits, though it can be very dangerous. Surprisingly we saw small trout swimming curiously around us, but not to close though. Later the landowner told us that as a young boy he used to fish there with some result but the catch was never big. 30-40 years have now passed since the last fish was caught there.

Before returning home we thanked the 83 year old farmer for sharing his knowledge of the area and great hospitality and showed him the photos we had taken.

We are determined to go back for better photos and stay for a longer period of time. One more hidden treasure has now been found and simply must be explored further.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24870694@N03/

Some beautiful photos!

This is from my trip to Indonesia (Raja Ampat to Lembeh via Halmahara aboard Ondina) in May/June. I spent an entire dive on this coral pillar. As is often the case, this photo doesn't do the scene justice. There was quite a strong current, so I had to really hang on (dead pieces of coral), but the soft corals and multitudes of small fish just made it a magical site/sight for me. As with many of the other photos in this thread, the reason for it being a favorite is not its technical excellence, but rather its ability to bring back that experience.

One of my favorite's was taken in Palau about 1 month ago, not because of the subject matter or composition, but the encounter itself. I was following this hawksbill, mostly just watching and observing it feed and swim around, totally ignoring me. It stopped to rest, so I thought I would go around to the front to get a quick shot and be on my way. I didn't want to disturb him, so I proceeded slowly getting a little closer so my Subal D3/16mm could capture him in full frame. As I approached every so 'quietly', inching a little closer to the optimum range, he started approaching me, until he bumped my housing dome port. He didn't back off far enough for me to get him in focus. So I just savored the moment as he and I just stared at each other. Then I backed up just enough to get him in focus and snapped this image. After which he seemingly just sat there and contemplated his encounter, as did I.

This shot probably will eventually be one of my favorites - my wife using my video rig for one of the first times. Part of my Master Plan. Get her hooked so I will be forced upgrade to the next video set up, she gets that one and it will all be her idea. BWAHAHAHA. Shhh, don't tell her

I was above her heading to my safety stop when I saw the stingray, made the stingray sign and pointed so she started the camera rolling. As I was watching I thought it looked cool as the ray started moving over the sand and she started moving over and down to get the shot. Got a couple of shots off and it was fun to see the footage she shot during this sequence.

Continues to be an amazing thread.

Alex

2008 has been a hell of a year for me in so many ways and a thanks for big part of that should go to everyone who takes the time to post here. Technical advice and raw inspiration are in abundance here like nowhere else, add to that Wetpixel Quarterly, and my head spins...

Here is my favourite shot, it marks for me the moment it all clicked in place and I started to feel I was getting it...

So far my reasons are...

1) A wonderful location,

2) A wonderful subject,

3) My first SLR, that had, up till this point, only been making my life hard, I realise now that difficulty for me was simply a momentary learning process and this was proved to me by my ability to find the settings for this shot quickly and make the most of wonderful opportunity. (I owe a lot to Martin Edge for this. Martin your book has been my bible.)

4) I discovered the joy of working in post production, when moving the sliders and clicking the buttons has little effect on making the image much better than in the RAW. Knowing that you got it right in camera is a good albeit rare feeling. (I'm working on improving the ratios of duds : those with potential : those you just know...)

5) The satisfaction that comes from the positive feedback from others, especially those who's work you admire and those who share your passion for the underwater world.

Thanks to everyone for the all the help (direct and indirect). I Hope 2009 fulfills all your wet dreams... (couldn't resist that one)

Great photo ozanners..i want it on my wall:-)

Cheers

Gassa

Hi everyone,

I've got one picture under/over that I like from this last year. To be more acurate, there is one under and one over.

Both of them from the Maldives. I liked the first "over" because of the skyline and the second "under" because of small/big mix (anemone fishes and manta)

Have a wonderful new year 2009 with plainty of bubbles...

Michel

I look forward to this thread every year. Ozanners, your shot takes my breath away. This is my favorite for 2008, funny but my favorites are always from the last dive I've taken. I love the look of sweetlips, and I was happy to get this "ball" without blowing out the glassy sweepers. Using a D200 / Subal, 16mm fisheye and Inon strobes pulled waaaay back. Fletcher

Hi there,

great photos flowing around here, Thanks for sharing your work.

I enjoy this photo because it's a very common subject in the Atlantic Ocean but I had never seen it with this new blue colors. Usually it's golden brown. I think it changes colors in the mating season. Taken in the Azores in late June 2008. Automatic WB.

Nikon D70, Dual YS-110, Nikkor 60mm Macro, f/8 1/320s Iso 200

Tiny Box fish, Kona Aggressor, July 2008. Had to chase this little booger all over his home reef. I have many, many photos of his tailfins, but I showed him whose evolved didn't I? Nikon D70s, 60mm, single Ike DS-125.

There are some incredible images in this thread!

Here are my two favourites

The squid shot because its a very rare subject to find and i've wanted to photograph since I got into photography 2 years ago.

and the seal shot because it reminds me off an incredible animal encounter I had.

Lets see what 2009 will bring!

Cheers

Cal

I took this photo during my annual pilgrimage to South Australia with Rodney Fox. This 3.5m Great White was not at all shy and was making slow loops out of the gloom towards the cage 18m down.

I was hanging out of the window looking through the viewfinder and as I saw him coming closer I was zooming out from 24mm to 12mm. It was only as he filled the viewfinder at 12mm that I raised

my head and realised he was a lot closer than I had thought. I didn't know it was possible to move so fast when you were frozen to the bone after being in 15C water for two hours,

but adrenaline is a wonderful thing!

Happy New Year everyone

www.flickr.com/photos/juliancohen/

julian@juliancohen.com

Awesome shots guys!

Here's two of my favourites from the Perhentians, Malaysia.

Porcelain Crab (Lissoporcellana sp.) I felt lucky to find this one on the outside of the soft coral, they seemed to hide inside most of the time.

Close-up of a Shuttlecock Egg Cowrie (Volva volva). I just like the mantle shape and colours

I was hanging out of the window looking through the viewfinder and as I saw him coming closer I was zooming out from 24mm to 12mm. It was only as he filled the viewfinder at 12mm...

Cal, I just love those colors in the squids

Hi All,

This is my favourite from Bali, Tulamben for this year......

tried linking again, hope it works....thank you Alex for the alert.....