World Best & Amazing Underwater Photographs : Deep Underwater World Photography
"Underwater Sadness" by Ramon Dominguez - a sea turtle caught in a net in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico
A lonely diver traversing a cavernous underwater crack scooped the 2010 Deep Indonesia photography competition. The picture was taken by 45-year-old professional photographer Magnus Lundgren from Sweden as he was guided though the fissure in Thingvellir Lake, Iceland.
Briton, John Hill, took the Silver award in the compact cameras category for his action-packed image taken from the heart of a school of silver coated jackfish. An amateur underwater photographer, he was diving off Sipadan Island in East Borneo, Malaysia during September 2009 as part of a year he spent travelling south-east Asia with his girlfriend, Jenny. Luckily for John his prize was a week eco-diving in Monado, Indonesia, so he will be heading back to south-east Asia in May 2011.
Other award winning pictures included a dramatic picture of a leopard seal snapping its jaws directly at the lens of Bartosz Strozynski, landing him the gold award for animal behaviour. "I was playing with the seal," said 35 year-old Bartosz from Poznan in Poland. "They are curious and they do try to test you in the water. This one saw his reflection in my lens and must have thought I was another leopard seal. So she displayed her teeth as a warning."
Luc Eeckhaut of Belgium won Gold in the Macro Unrestricted category for his image, "Froggy and Shrimpfish", showing a frogfish and some shrimpfish in Indonesia
"Inner Glow" by Ross Gudgeon - a jellyfish in Ningaloo Reef, Australia.
"Thanks to Keri" by Michele Davino - a juvenile flying fish in Raja Ampat, Indonesia
"Struggle for freedom" by Karel Bernard - herring inside a net in the Baltic Sea
"Leopard on ice" by Jonas Thormar - a leopard seal in Antarctic Peninsula
A stargazer in Blue Heron Bridge, Florida, by Keri Wilk
"Hitting Sailfish" by Alexander Safonov - a sailfish attacking schooling fish in Port St Johns, South Africa
"Multitude" by Acevedo Eduardo - schooling catfish in Indonesia
Sand Tiger shark in a school of fish in North Carolina, by Jeremy Kozman
Lion fish with schooling glassfish in Red Sea, Egypt, by Amir Stern
"Reflection" by Yigal Aharoni - lion fish in Red Sea, Egypt
Harlequin shrimp (Hymenocera elegans) in Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia, by Francesco De Marchi
"The boss and the gang" by Tamas Szabo - a lemon shark with pilot fish in Red Sea, Egypt
"Schooling Jacks" by Maria Rivarola - a diver and schooling jackfish in Indonesia
"Blue Eyes" by Michael McEvoy - a moray eel in Indonesia
A cowshark in Cape Town, South Africa, by Dennis Vandermeersch
"Untitled" by Jose Alejandro Alvarez - sweetlips in unspecified location