Your Favourite/Best Image of 2014

Here is my fave, shot at the Stingray City site this summer

My favorite experience this year was hanging out with Spotted Dolphins in Bimini last August, they are just so much fun to be in the water with!

I am back in Bimini this week shooting Great Hammerheads and doing Tiger Sharks with Epic next week for my project Giants of the Caribbean. It seems that I am just going to miss Adam and others who are there now..

Best fishes for 2015 to everyone!

Vincent

Taken in Bonaire last September.

My favorite picture(s) just squeaked into 2014, as they occurred on an 80+ minute dive on December 30th, where 6 mantas circled over us at 20 ft. from the moment we entered the water until we came up with nearly empty tanks.

This was one of my favorites for the year. D7100 with 105 Vr and +10 SubSea

My partner Cameron spends a lot of time modelling for me underwater, especially when we cave dive together. This photo is certainly not my best from last year, but it's one of my favourites because it's just Cameron being himself in the water for a change.

My partner Cameron spends a lot of time modelling for me underwater, especially when we cave dive together. This photo is certainly not my best from last year, but it's one of my favourites because it's just Cameron being himself in the water for a change.

 

Great shot. Where was this taken? It looks like he is wearing a dry suit, something you don't often see with tiger sharks....

It's the Bahamas. I was wearing one too. :-)

http://www.InspiredToDive.com

This is one shot of several favorites; this from a lack-lustre trip to Ambon, where conditions were less than desirable. I have never seen this spectacularly coloured gorgonian before, and the contrast with the crab really appealed to me.

Cheers,

Marli

It's always too difficult, so, as usual, I'll cheat. One from Truk, one from the Red Sea and one from Raja Ampat:

Thanks!

Nice Tim!

Since for once I didn’t start the thread, I am definitely going to cheat this year.

Here is my favourite topside from a dive trip. Taken on assignment in Jordan, in Petra at night. More interesting that the average dive trip topside:

This story has been published in the January 2015 issue of Diver Magazine (UK).

Alex

I have decided to select this pretty average shot as my Favourite photo of 2014. Not because of the image, but how important it was for me. For the last few years I have been working on a project on the Thistlegorm wreck, and this photo was the final piece of the jigsaw.

The Thistlegorm has been one of the world’s most popular dive sites for the last 20+ years. And the main attraction is the amazing cargo of British World War II vehicles in the holds. So you would think with hundreds of dives being made there every day and the vehicles being the main attraction, that we’d know everything about them.

Four years ago i realised we didn’t. That nobody had mapped and properly documented the wreck. And most of the information in books and magazine articles about the vehicles had them misidentified. People kept repeating the same misidentifications (if enough people repeat it, it becomes fact) - and I was a guilty as anyone having published many misidentified photos of Thistlegorm vehicles. So I set out with some friends to photograph, video and then identify and map all the vehicles in the two levels of the holds of the wreck. This was the final vehicle we added the maps:

This is an Albion BY3 lorry. There are six of them in a row across the middle of the holds, although this is the only one that faces towards the stern of the ship. Everyone sees them, but most people disregard them as trailers. But if you can squeeze the camera into the right spot, you can see exactly what they are.

Here is the only info I have on this vehicle, not the distinctive V at the top of the radiator amongst other features:

This is a photo of a later BY5, with a bridging trailer - to show you what it would have looked like when loaded - with the canvas roof and windscreen:

This is one of the coolest uses for my photography I have experienced. Identifying vehicles in this state of degradation is not simple and is a real photographic challenge to shoot them in a way that is clear and useful.

It was also an amazing experience and very exciting finally identifying the vehicles and with many typing the name of the vehicle and Thistlegorm into google and getting no returns, knowing that we were really breaking new ground again and again.

Here is our map, the BY3’s are in pink, the photo above is of the third on in from the port side.

I am slowly getting this article published in more and more magazines. I am keen to see it published as widely as possible - because I want this information to be out there. When I am next in Sharm I will give copied of the maps and images to all the dive centres - so that they can be used in briefings.

One of the most amazing things of the research is that in properly identifying the vehicles we got a clear idea of the intended uses of the cargo and the true role of the Thistlegorm’s voyage. You’ll have to see the article for that!

Alex

My favourite of 2014... I finally understood how to use my strobe from this dive onwards and this photo was the turning point where everything 'clicked'

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Lots of amazing shots on this thread! I'm constantly in awe of the talent of the contributors to this forum.

Not sure if it's the best, but I think it's my favorite image of 2014

Favorite shot is topside this year:

But I also have one of the OP learning the same lesson:

Hi Folks,

As usual, I'm humbled by the images that get posted here! While against my personality, I'm going to knowingly break the rule as well! I'm posting two of my favourite images from 2014.

The first is an image from a cave diving trip to Tulum back in March. The image was made with one strobe, fired with a 15' extension cord so as to remove me (the photographer) from the image as much as possible (didn't need to slave it off another strobe). It was taken in a passage called "River Run" where a layer of freshwater sits on top of the infiltrating seawater. It is a magical experience diving this passage, and I hope the image offers some sense of it.

The second image was made at Whytecliff Park, a little closer to home, and a popular Vancouver, BC dive site. The site is located on a fiord and as such, has a steeply sloping wall that starts in 20-30' and plunges down to over 700'. The cloud sponges, the main subject of the image, start at about 100' and are a favourite with technical divers. This image is actually the start of a little project to shoot the sponges with tech divers... if we ever get our winter vis!

Thanks for looking!

Lee

I'm totally cheating as well.

I made a conscious effort of late to create depth in my wide angle images. This is not the best one, but shows what I mean and I like it because of the sense of motion conveyed.

This was my first time shark diving. I'm hooked. Sadly I was a little too excited to take any proper photos but I was pretty happy with this one

So I found this mermaid in Key Largo...

Also these pictures are awesome everyone!

Pregnant pygmy seahorse.

Taken in Tulamben, Bail, Indonesia.

Olympus E-M5, Nauticam Housing, 60 mm, 2 x Inon Z-240 strobes