Rusty Haven P
Winner: British Waters Living Together Photographer: Dan Bolt, UK Location: Loch Carron
This images shows nature’ s ability to make the best of a bad situation. The iron block and heavy chain are actually holding a small barge in-place on the surface where local scallop divers store their equipment. The barge itself is a floating reef system all of its own, and the anchor blocks have attracted many species too.
JAMES LYNOTT / UPY 2025
DAN BOLT / UPY 2025
Fluro squat lobster R
Runner-up: British Waters Macro Also Most promising Underwater Photographer 2025 Photographer: James Lynott, UK Location: Inveraray, Loch Fyne
This image was taken on a wonderful night dive at Inveraray, Loch Fyne. This site is known for being home to many beautiful fireworks anemones at shallow depths, but it also has an old pipe covered in concrete blocks which is home to lots of life, including the spiny squat lobster. These squat lobsters show the brightest fluorescence I have seen in crustaceans and I was really pleased on this dive to be able to capture the whole animal in frame. I used excitation filters on my strobes, along with a yellow barrier filter in front of the lens to capture the fluorescence
DAN BOLT / UPY 2025
WOJCIECH DOPIERALA / UPY 2025
Q The Hitch Hiker
Winner: British Waters Macro Photographer: Dan Bolt, UK Location: Scotland
Occasionally in my time under the water I have come across this medusa Neoturris pileata in the open water but had not taken a decent photo of one. On this occasion however, my buddy and I were specifically targeting them and other similar creatures to try to explore the idea of UK‘ blackwater’ photographic opportunities. Of the many images I took that day, this one revealed a larval crustacean on the outside of the bell
Deep Sea Birds P
Second Place: Wrecks Photographer: Wojciech Dopierala Location: Lockheed L-1011-500 TriStar, Jordan
Aqaba is well known among most divers and was high on my wish list for years. Finally, a perfect opportunity was created by Carlos Diesel( the agile freediver you can see on this photo) in collaboration with Diverse Divers Diving Centre. The idea came suddenly at the very end of our time. Fortunately, Carlos did amazing job. Looking at the scene, before I even pressed the shutter, I already had the feeling that it’ s probably the best shot of the trip
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