You may view the gallery of winning still images by following this link. Videos may be posted at a later date.

Winning entries are:

BEST OF SHOW - Jim Abernethy, North Palm Beach, FL, USA "Hammerhead" Won a seven day dive trip in Fiji Islands aboard NAI'A courtesy of NAI'A Cruises Fiji

Category A MACRO SLIDES/DIGITAL

• FIRST PLACE - Marna Zanoff, Venice, CA, USA, "Middle Earth" Won a one week liveaboard trip in the Philippines courtesy of Explorer Liveaboards
• SECOND PLACE - Alessandro Dodi, Milano, ITALY, "Arthur" Won a $250 gift certificate courtesy of Reef Photo & Video
• THIRD PLACE - Keri Wilk, Mississauga, Ontario, CANADA, "Scareface"Won a $100 gift certificate courtesy of Jujee Beads
• FOURTH PLACE - Istvan Juhasz, Fot, HUNGARY, "Layers" Won a beautiful tee shirt courtesy of Rogest
• FIFTH PLACE - Christine Kelbe, Richards Bay, Kwazulu Natal, SOUTH AFRICA "Dressed to Kill"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Mike Roberts, Kihei, HI, USA, "Cat Urchin"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Rand McMeins, Edmonds, WA, USA, "Rear Curtain"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Pasquale Vassallo, Napoli, ITALY, "Smile"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Paolo Rossi, Pesaro, ITALY, "Night Lovers"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Denis Palbiani, Reggio Emilia, ITALY, "Family"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Mirko Zanni, Gordola, Switzerland, "Together"

Category B MACRO PRINTS

• FIRST PLACE -Kevin Roland, Bakersfield, CA, USA, "Bangai Cardinal Fish" Won a one week dive trip in the Solomons courtesy of Bilikiki Cruises Ltd.
• SECOND PLACE - Denis Palbiani, Reggio Emilia, ITALY, "Mr. Red" Won a $250 gift certificate courtesy of Backscatter Underwater Video & Photo.
• THIRD PLACE - Kelly Bracken, Redondo Beach, CA, USA, "Little Fella" Won a medium Dri-Vault Case courtesy of American Diving.
• FOURTH PLACE - Jackie Reid, Lake Jackson, TX, USA, "Lizard's Lunch" Won a Pelican light courtesy of LAUPS.
• FIFTH PLACE - Alessandro Tommasi, Porto Santo Stefano, ITALY, "The Net"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Patty Shales, Los Angeles, CA, USA, "Pucker Up"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Glenn Ostle, Charlotte, NC, USA, "New Guinea Clownfish"

Category C WIDE ANGLE SLIDES/DIGITAL

• FIRST PLACE - Jose Alejandro Alvarez, Santo Domingo, DN, REPUBLICA DOMINICANA, "Door" Won a 7 night dive vacation in the Manado courtesy of Murex Dive Resorts & Live-aboards.
• SECOND PLACE - Ross Armstrong, Whangarei, NEW ZEALAND, "Seeing-is-Believing" Won a $300 gift certificate courtesy of Ikelite Underwater Systems.
• THIRD PLACE - Ritthichart Silaraks, Bangkok, THAILAND, "Deep Jungle" Won a Back Pack courtesy of Divers Alert Network.
• FOURTH PLACE - Kelly Bracken, Redondo Beach, CA, USA, "Pals" Won a beautiful towel courtesy of Rogest
• FIFTH PLACE - Herbert Ko, Mountain View, CA, USA, "Tiger"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Jose Alejandro Alvarez, Santo Domingo, DN, REPUBLICA DOMINICANA, "Fly Like an Eagle"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Victor Zucker, Granada Hills, CA, USA, "Wreck of the Ann"

Category D WIDE ANGLE PRINTS

• FIRST PLACE - Jim Abernethy, North Palm Beach, FL, USA "American Alligator" Won a $500 Gift Certificate courtesy of Nautilus Explorer Inc.
• SECOND PLACE - Alessandro Tommasi, Porto Santo Stefano, ITALY, "Fly in the Night" Won a Camera Repair Certificate courtesy of Sub Aquatic Camera Repair Co.
• THIRD PLACE -Franco Guala, Rovasenda, ITALY, "Tre Moschettieri" Won a $100 Gift Certificate courtesy of Ultralight.
• FOURTH PLACE - Ernst Seeling, Vienna, AUSTRIA, "Prinz Albert" Won a beautiful tee shirt courtesy of Rogest
• FIFTH PLACE - Rand McMeins, Edmonds, WA, USA, "Zero Altitude"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Roger Carlson, Redondo Beach, CA, USA, "Lobster Parade"

Category E WEST COAST COLD WATER SLIDES/DIGITAL

• FIRST PLACE - Joe Belanger, Huntington Beach, CA, USA, "Feeding Bat Ray" Won a seven night dive adventure courtesy of Pulau Sipadan Resort & Tours Sdn Bhd.
• SECOND PLACE - Todd Winner, Hermosa Beach, CA, USA, "Bad Day" Won a Pelican 1560 case courtesy of Pelican Products.
• THIRD PLACE - Todd Mintz, Regina, SK, CANADA, "Vibrant" Won a Philippines book courtesy of Scott Tuason.
• FOURTH PLACE - Matt Segal, Calabasas, CA, USA, "Sleek" Won a Pelican light courtesy of LAUPS.
• FIFTH PLACE - Todd Mintz, Regina, SK, CANADA, "Fire & Ice"

Category F WEST COAST COLD WATER PRINTS

• FIRST PLACE - Glenn Ostle, Charlotte, NC, USA, "Browning Wall Octopus" Won a one week live-aboard dive expedition to Australia or Papua New Guinea courtesy of Mike Ball Diving Expeditions.
• SECOND PLACE - Glenn Ostle, Charlotte, NC, USA, "Sculpin on an Orange" Won a Spare Air Model 300 Package courtesy of Submersible Systems, Inc.
• THIRD PLACE - Scott Webb, Redondo Beach, CA, USA, "Mola" Won a U/W Photography digital class courtesy of Andy Sallmon.
• FOURTH PLACE - Roger Carlson, Redondo Beach, CA, USA, "Ray" Won a beautiful towel courtesy of Rogest
• FIFTH PLACE - Roger Carlson, Redondo Beach, CA, USA, "Oil Rig"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Frank Virga, Bakersfield, CA, USA, "Garibaldi"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Dave Nesheim, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, USA, "Hi There"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Krista Heide, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, "Diving Platform Grace"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Rand McMeins, Edmonds, WA, USA, "Evening Stroll"

Category G MARINE RELATED SCENIC PRINTS

• FIRST PLACE - Roger Carlson, Redondo Beach, CA, USA, "Tug Boat" Won a seven night Manta Ray Bay dive trip courtesy of Manta Ray Bay Hotel and Yap Divers.
• SECOND PLACE - Glenn Ostle, Charlotte, NC, USA, "Seal Pup" Won a Camera Repair Certificate courtesy of Sub Aquatic Camera Repair Co.
• THIRD PLACE - Steve Benavides, Santa Ana, CA, USA, "The Sultan" Won a dive coat courtesy of JMJ Manufacture Inc.
• FOURTH PLACE - Martin Tomcik, Vrutky, SLOVAK REPUBLIC, "Gliders" Won a Sensational Seas DVD courtesy of Gates Underwater Products.
• FIFTH PLACE - Dave Nesheim, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, USA, "Curious Blue Heron"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Dave Nesheim, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, USA, "Feed Me"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Glenn Ostle, Charlotte, NC, USA, "Osprey on Patrol"

Category H CREATIVE FREESTYLE PRINTS

• FIRST PLACE - Douglas Cummings, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, "Feathers as an Oil" Won seven night accommodations in Pacific Harbor Fiji courtesy of Lagoon Resort.
• SECOND PLACE - Pete Flusser, Culver City, CA, USA, "Turtle" Won a large Dri-Vault Case courtesy of American Diving.
• THIRD PLACE - Ernst Seeling, Vienna, AUSTRIA, "Two Worlds" Won a DUI weight and trim system courtesy of Diving Unlimited International.
• FOURTH PLACE - Douglas Cummings, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, "The Sullen Dream" Won a Pelican 1200 case courtesy of Pelican Products.
• FIFTH PLACE - Roger Carlson, Redondo Beach, CA, USA, "Cocos Kitty"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Pete Flusser, Culver City, CA, USA, "Octopus"

VIDEO RAW FOOTAGE

• FIRST PLACE - Nick Martorano, Carpinteria, CA, USA, "Eel swimming & feeding" Won a 7 night dive package in La Paz courtesy of Club Cantamar.
• SECOND PLACE - Nick Martorano, Carpinteria, CA, USA, "Turtle with fish cleaning" Won a Pelican 1510 case courtesy of Pelican Products.
• THIRD PLACE - Jim Abernethy, North Palm Beach, FL, USA "Leatherback with remoras" Won a First Aid Kit courtesy of Divers Alert Network.
• FOURTH PLACE - Deanna Harwood, Rolling Hills Estates, CA, USA, "Sex in the Anemone" Won a small Dri-Vault Case courtesy of American Diving.
• FIFTH PLACE - Walter Marti, Mission Viejo, CA, USA, "Kelp Forest with Sheephead fighting"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Margaret Shoemake, North Palm Beach, FL, USA "Angels & Turtle Feeding"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Janet Crumb, Pasadena, CA, USA, "Great White in Cage"

VIDEO OPEN

• FIRST PLACE - Janet & Dwight Crumb, Pasadena, CA, USA, "Sharks!" Won a $2000 travel credit to trip of their choice courtesy of Uncommon Adventures Dive & Adventure Travel.
• SECOND PLACE - Mary Anne Pedoto, Hamilton, OH, USA, "Due Diligence" Won a beautiful gold "Lady Luck" pedant courtesy of Torgny & Company.
• THIRD PLACE - Nick Martorano, Carpinteria, CA, USA, "Small World" Won a jacket courtesy of Gates Underwater Products.
• FOURTH PLACE - Jim Abernethy, North Palm Beach, FL, USA "Atlantic Spotted Dolphins" Won a Adventure H2O shirt courtesy of LAUPS.
• FIFTH PLACE - Edward Snijders, Nuth, NETHERLANDS, "Coral Clips"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Fred Heiman, Los Gatos, CA, USA, "Tigers of the Caribbean"
• HONORABLE MENTION - Keith Tremeer, Sao Paulo, BRAZIL, "Planet Earth"
• HONORABLE MENTION - J.D. Duff, West Palm Beach, FL, USA "Mantas Dance"

Mark B. Dell'Aquila
Mark Dell'Aquila is a Professional Writer, Cinematographer, Photographer and Lecturer. Mark has fifteen years experience as a underwater photographer and has been working professionally in this field for the past eleven years. As a Cinematographer and Producer he is credited for a number of productions such as "The Long Beach Breakwater: Our Overlooked Marine Treasure", "The Kelp Forest" and "Megamouth: Alien From The Depths". As a cinematographer his underwater footage has been used in many productions including Discovery Channel's, "Shark: The Silent Savage", CBS Televisions' special "Terrors of the Deep" and NBC Televisions' "Extremely Weird". Also footage for Discovery Channel's "The Shark Doctors", PBS-NOVA, Tokyo Television, KCET Television, Movie Studios and foreign Visitors Bureaus.

As a Magazine Writer he has published a number of articles in California Diving News including both text and photos. He has had photos published in National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Skindiver Magazine, The Cousteau's Dolphin Log, The Los Angeles Museum of Natural History's Terra Magazine and other magazines. Mark is a past President of the Los Angeles Underwater Photographic Society and was on the board from 1987-1990. Mark was winner of more than thirty international underwater still photography awards.

Ric Frazier
Born and raised in Texas, Ric's photographic journey began with participating in and shooting the skateboarding scene. Many scrapes and scars later, swimming with the sharks seemed like an equally stimulating experience. This led this aqua man to pursue his interests at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA.

Over ten years later, having become one of the most skilled, experienced and versatile underwater photographer in the world, Ric has redefined the art of underwater photography shooting everything ranging from people, props and sets, to ocean life. With a focus on advertising and editorial, Ric offers a relaxed and efficient working environment however complex or simple the shot or campaign. Recently shooting for advertising clients such as Bayer, Mcdonald's, MTV, and Shell Oil, and editorial clients such as Elle, ESPN, GQ, People, and Shape.

Richard Herrmann
Richard Herrmann moved from France as a young boy to California's Monterey Peninsula at Pacific Grove. Those early days inspired a career in marine science which led to a specialty in underwater photography. In the early 1980's Richard helped push photographic boundaries that existed at the time to explore the open sea environment off the Baja and Southern California coasts. Richard's images of blue and mako sharks, zooplankton, Mola mola, tuna and striped marlin are his most recognizable images.

Richard Herrmann has won first prize in the world's two most prestigious nature photographic competitions, BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Nature's Best. He has also won a 2nd prize from the "Pictures of the Year International" (POY Awards). His images and photo-text pieces have appeared in hundreds of publications, including Time, Outside, BBC Wildlife, Terre Sauvage, Smithsonian, and National Geographic books. Richard's prints have been exhibited at the London Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian and many of the World's greatest aquariums.

In 1990, Richard was the still photographer for Jacques Cousteau's Rediscovery of the World Philippines Expedition on Calypso. Richard is a contract photographer for The Nature Conservancy and his commercial clients include Southern California Edison, Daiwa, Shimano and Budweiser. Richard just finished a year long contract with IMAX Corporation / Howard Hall productions working on an underwater 3-D film at locations such as Bahamas, Hawaii, Baja California and the Gulf of Mexico

Bruce Rasner
Bruce Rasner has been diving for over 25 years and doing underwater photography all over the world for the past 18 years. His dive travels have ranged from the Arctic to Patagonia, Argentina, throughout the Caribbean, South Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Red Sea. He has won numerous photographic competitions and served as a judge in the Malaysian International Photographic Competition.

Bruce has photographed for a number of foreign tourist boards, liveaboard operations and dive resorts. For the past 15 years he has exhibited at the juried Laguna Beach Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach, California; displayed his work as fine art at a number of galleries and art shows; and served as president of the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts - Pageant of the Masters. He has been fortunate to have photographed larger rare marine life such as megamouth and myriad of uncommon species in our planet's oceans.

Overall, the judges said that they were impressed with the high quality of the images. They were particularly impressed with the macro category. The judges felt that in today's competitions, if you want to have an image that will stand out and has a good chance to place, enter a very good Wide Angle image. The field is much more competitive in macro.

In judging macro especially, the judges said that due to the very competitive field, they had to eliminate images with any technical flaws. Images had to be in sharp focus, (especially the eyes), with excellent composition, lighting and minimal or no backscatter. The degree of difficulty and impact of the images were often the tie breaker factors.

• With digital becoming more dominant, it is very important that entrants not over process their images. Even though Photoshop allows photographers to adjust images, nothing replaces a properly exposed, well-composed image. Unfortunately over saturation and over sharpening can and does detract from a good image.
• Don't compete with yourself. If you have more than one image of the same subject, select the best one and enter that. There were several images that were repeats of the same subject and it was clear that they were taken by the same photographer.
• When entering prints, evaluate the paper stock you select to enhance your image. e.g. B/W images tend to look better on a matte or satin finish; a striking image might best be printed on a high gloss.
• The rarity of your subject should not be of great importance when submitting entries. A common subject with impact and technical perfection will win over a rare, but mediocre image.
• Your subject needs room to swim into. (Nose room). Don't have the face, nose, snout, etc. of your subject near the edge of the image.
• There were a lot of entries with very unusual or exciting subjects that were eliminated because of technical flaws.
• Be very selective about photographing divers. In more instances than not, the presence of a diver in an image will hurt rather than help it.
• Especially for novice and intermediate divers; select one style of photography and equipment and master it, rather than try to take macro, wide angle, available light, close focus wide angle, etc. styles, all at one time.
• For animal portraits, eye contact is essential. Try to shoot from the animal's 'viewpoint'. e.g. shots of the back of animal, (or worse) the tail of an animal, looking down are less desirable.
• Again this year the judges felt that that overall the quality of photographic work in this competition was impressive and the number and quality of entries exceeds most other contests in which they have had past involvement.
• As in past competitions, technical deficiencies caused the immediate downgrading of images. These deficiencies included over-exposure, fuzzy focus, and depth of field where important, backscatter, positioning of subject, etc. The primary positive element for images to make the final cut was IMPACT. Image quality, interesting lighting, composition and unique perspective all play a part in an impactful image.
• The judges would have like to have seen more conceptual images in creative freestyle rather than just playing with Photoshop filters.

Video Entries - Raw Category:

Behavior was the key. They were looking for interesting behavior, not just a shot of an interesting animal.

• It is important to start and end a clip retaining only the best quality action. You do not have to use all of the time limit; it is only the maximum you can enter. Consider quality over quantity.
• Try shooting for final edit; let the picture tell the story. Hold the shot until its finished let it play out.
• Watch your camera focus and remember to keep the lens/port clean.
• Buoyancy plays a big factor in achieving good smooth camera work.
• Try to avoid too much zooming. Carefully approach animals and use minimal zoom. Keep the animal in the frame and try swimming along with the animal, don't chase it.

The judges looked for clear footage that was shot well. It needed to be interesting. For example, the shot is not as appealing when fish are shot at a distance, using a standard lens. Clarity, color, variety were important.

• Music is most effective when it matches the mood of the scene or subject. In some cases where music was used, it was distracting to have the diver's breathing in the background, this can be edited out.
• Multiple angles or close, standard and wide perspectives of the same critter would be nice, but not so much of the same critter shot only one way, that it lessens the impact or interest of the subject. Good quality narration is fine, but too much narration can weigh down the video.
• Be careful with trying to be too cute or clever, as it can get old very fast.
• The use of slow motion can work well so that the viewer can see fast action better. Too much of this, however would be distracting.
• Make use of the natural setting or background when shooting. Take in your surroundings and use camera angles to create interesting videos.
• Shooting the back end of animals swimming away does not have impact.
• Limit the use of special effects, transitions, and stop motion techniques. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should do it.
• Let one subject take you over to another, without cutting in between. And at times, let the subject animal leave the frame. Try to emulate professional videographers. Edit your video so that it makes a visual story, or at least to have elements that go together.
• Take the time to storyboard your video. It should be well planned and thought out. Avoid shooting without having a plan.
• Try something new and creative. Get away from the standard documentary type video.