Yawn: Third Place, British Waters Wide Angle. A gray seal pup stretches and performs an exaggerated yawn as it awakens from a snooze in the kelp. There is a kinship one feels when sharing the water with marine mammals, and these seals are among the best underwater companions. Just weeks after birth, pups are abandoned to fend for themselves, but they exhibit no anxiety at the world that awaits, exploring it with insatiable energy and joyfulness. The pups actively seek out divers and snorkelers, leading to wildlife encounters in which everyone wins. Photographed along England's Lundy Island. #

Fluorescent Fireworks: Runner Up, British Waters Compact. I don’t think I will ever tire of viewing and capturing images of fireworks anemones fluorescing under blue light. There is so much variation in the fluorescence patterns among individuals, as well as the shapes created by the position of the tentacles in the water. This shot was taken in Loch Long during a night dive in October 2021, and it is one of my favorites so far. #

Great White Split: Category Runner Up and British Underwater Photographer of the Year 2022, Portrait. I had wanted to shoot a charismatic over/under portrait of a great white shark for a couple of years. Some techniques I had previously tried failed terribly, so this time I designed and constructed my own carbon pole and remote trigger. This enabled me to safely lower my camera and housing into the water with my own 12-inch split-shot dome port attached. Surprisingly the sharks were instantly attracted to the camera with no extra bait needed. In fact, it was a battle to stop them biting the dome port! Photographed off Australia's North Neptune Islands. #

Headspace: Runner Up, Compact. My daughter Madi is a favorite subject. I have been photographing her for years on her artistic-swimming team in Davis, California (Aquastarz). In this photo, Madi is performing a "barracuda" maneuver, one of the many compulsory figures that are required in competition and to advance in the sport. The move requires Madi to "scull" with her hands to stay vertical and then to lift herself above the waterline as high as she can. In this shot, the angle, lighting, and shape were compelling and even more so when inverted. #

The Circle of Life: Runner Up, Behavior. This image is the result of many years working on animal behavior. A diseased species is usually easy prey for a predator because it uses little energy. In this case, a Mediterranean predatory fish (Serranus scriba) has hunted a green fish (Labrus viridis), an endemic species to the Mediterranean and abundant in the Posidonia oceanica meadows. The moment was unique; the green wrasse swam slowly and roughly (it was probably sick), and a few meters away I could see the painted comber hiding among the dense Posidonia meadow to hunt it down. It was a matter of being patient, and in the blink of an eye, I caught it. #

Evening with Sharks and Birds: Runner Up, Black and White. I was in Moorea, in French Polynesia, with my daughter in September 2021, in the middle of complete lockdown. All dive shops and boat rentals were closed and tourists were not allowed to move out from their hotels (except 1 km for recreation). Fortunately our apartment was quite close to a famous spot in the lagoon with sharks and rays, and the owner of our apartment arranged two kayaks for our "recreation." So we put our snorkeling equipment and my housing on kayaks and paddled to the spot. We were completely alone there for three days, with all the sharks, rays, and birds just for us. #

All You Need Is Love: Category Winner and My Backyard Winner, Behavior. This love pond is in my backyard, a 20-minute drive from home, and it has rewarded me plentifully over the past 10 years. It is full of love in late April. The common frogs come first, then toads and finally newts. I spent four day sessions and four night sessions in it in 2021. I wore a drysuit with argon, lots of undergarments, and a heated vest to survive in the five-degree water. I floated and stayed put among the frogs, and quite soon they accepted me and my camera as a part of the scenery. The frogs climbed on top of my camera, made grunting sounds in my ears, and squeezed between my face and the backplate of the camera. #

Hunting: Third Place, Behavior. The captured scene is an action shot of a striped marlin mid-hunt in Mexico. I traveled to Puerto San Carlos with the plan to photograph marlins, mobulas, and whales. The idea behind the photo was to try to re-create the sense of thrill when sharing the ocean with a predator who is in the middle of catching its prey. The photograph was quite difficult to catch considering the constant movement of the bait ball and the school of marlins, requiring constant adjustment mid-water. #

Coral on the Kittiwake: Third Place, Wrecks. This image was taken on the Kittiwake wreck in Grand Cayman, where I worked as a dive instructor. It was actually taken a couple of days after COVID-19 closed the island. My boss Jason asked me to join him on a trip because there was no work. Coral, the model, is a talented freediver, and Jason's model, whom I had the pleasure of photographing that day. #

Diamonds and Rust: Most Promising British Underwater Photographer 2022 and Category Third Place, British Waters Macro. This picture was taken on a bright afternoon when I knew the sun would be on the west side of Swanage Pier, in Swanage, England. The sea gooseberries had been around for a while, and on this particular day the water was like glass. I floated in the spot I wanted and waited for them to slowly drift by. The background colors represent the rust and weed growth on a metal crossbeam. #

Sunset Ray: Runner Up, Wide Angle. I had heard and seen so many good things about the "Tuna Factory" dive site close to Malé, in the Maldives, and was looking forward to diving this site, hoping to see guitar rays or big sharks like bull or tiger sharks, which are regularly seen there. Because it was the last dive on a live-aboard trip before I flew out early the next day, I had to stay shallow. So while everybody else went deep looking for bigger fish, I stayed up in the shallows and played around with what the site had to offer: schooling bannerfish, stingrays, and moray eels that were looking for tuna skins, bones, and heads that are dumped into the ocean by the tuna factory. I quickly found a great spot where I could shoot against the setting sun, framing the schooling bannerfish and the pink whiprays that were constantly circling the area. #

Mimicry: My Backyard Runner Up and Winner, Macro. This image is the result of many hours working with the species that live in the seagrass meadows. Both species, the pipefish (Syngnathus abaster) and the green prawn (Hippolyte sp.), live on the leaves of seagrasses. It is not the first time that I have seen this curious behavior; I have been able to observe it on four or five occasions, but I had never been able to take a good photo of it. Sometimes the shrimp would move, and other times the pipefish would quickly hide in my presence. The pipefish looks like a seagrass leaf, and for this reason some prawns merge with its body, thinking that they are leaves that move. Both are mimetic species. Photographed in La Azohia, Spain. #

A Peaceful Coexistence: Winner, British Waters Living Together. In the summer months, jellyfish frequent the British isles in larger numbers, thought to be attracted by the warmer waters. The summer of 2021 was no exception, and there were huge numbers of these compass jellyfish in Falmouth Bay. It was a perfect summer's evening—clear and calm, with hardly a breath of wind. We grabbed the paddleboard and camera and headed to the beach in search of jellyfish. #

Big Appetite: "Save Our Seas Foundation" Marine Conservation Photographer of the Year 2022 and Category Winner, Marine Conservation. An aerial perspective of busy anchovy-fishing activities off the coast of Hon Yen, in Phu Yen province, Vietnam. Many local fishing families along the coastline will follow the near-shore currents to catch anchovies during peak season. Salted anchovy is the most important raw material to create traditional Vietnamese fish sauce, but anchovies are a little fish with a big impact. When they are overfished, whales, tuna, seabirds, and other marine predators that rely on them as a dietary staple face starvation and population decline. Vietnam is facing an anchovy-overfishing situation—according to the survey results of the Institute of Seafood Research, the reserves and catches of anchovies in the waters of Vietnam have decreased by 20 to 30 percent in the past 10 years. #

Gannet Storm: Winner, British Waters Wide Angle. A northern gannet swims in an artistic hail of bubbles created by diving seabirds. Forty thousand gannets visit the nearby cliffs annually to lay and care for a single egg, fishing for food nearby. Hitting the frigid water faster than an Olympic diver, these incredible birds have evolved airs acs in the head and chest to survive these repeated heavy impacts. From underwater, the sound was thunderous as streamlined white torpedoes pierced the surface. Photographed near the cliffs of Shetland, Scotland. #