Alert Diver Category: Imaging

Having their work showcased in a print magazine is one of the greatest satisfactions for underwater photographers.

With our finite time and limited light underwater, every image-capture quest is like a treasure hunt. We all have different ideas of what is treasure: It may be marine mammals, shipwrecks, reef corals, or icebergs. I like to go beyond a single underwater subject and look for something more abstract. Pattern, form, and color rule my world.

Certain studio photo techniques can lend themselves to underwater photography. Using the right lighting can highlight the details in certain sea critters — leading to breathtaking images.

While their journeys were each different, Allison Vitsky Sallmon and Andy Sallmon are passionate underwater photographers. Read more about their passions and how they met.

Award-winning underwater photographer Tony Wu had his ah-ha moment when photographing a sperm whale. Since that encounter, he transitioned to marine photography and has done a lot of work with whales since.

A successful split-shot image enables the viewer to see both above and under water. To compose a fantastic split, read these photo techniques from an expert.

Greg Lecoeur had an intense love of nature and the sea at an early age. He switched careers late in life and became an underwater photographer.

Becky Kagan Schott is an accomplished underwater photograph and videographer. She has won five Emmys for underwater camera work and has shot for National Geographic and the Travel Channel.

As part of the 2019 Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards annual competition, the Ocean Views category honors those photographers whose skill and creative vision have captured a frozen moment in time that can bring attention to both the bounty and fragility of the marine ecosystems found in and near our underwater world.