We are happy to announce that the winner of the RSDS Photo Competition for December 2022 has been chosen. Congratulations to Kjetil Kalla with his photo "When life gives you lemons".
Kjetil wins a free stay at the RSDS village of his choice. You can view the winning photo, and all the December participants here.
If you would like a chance to win, simply register on our website and upload your photos from our competition page. Each day we choose a 'photo of the day' from the selection of entries. Anyone can register on our website and vote on photos entered into the competition. At the end of the month our Photo Pro and photography workshop leader, Paul ‘Duxy’ Duxfield, looks at the votes and chooses a winner from the highest scoring photos. Full terms and conditions and prize details are available here.
Congratulations again to Kjetil, and good luck to all those participating in the coming months!
From Paul Duxfield, our competition judge:
Mostly macro and close up pictures to end 2022’s photo entries. And some very good ones too.
It’s not enough really to just record a great or unusual creature when you’re armed with a macro lens in my opinion. You’ve got to try and raise the standards by lighting it interestingly, framing it creatively, and hopefully against a good not too messy backdrop.
So amongst a bevy of beautiful shots, I’ve narrowed it down to a pair of very good macro pictures that display, patience, technique and creativity in spades.
First though I’d like to mention the very close also rans which in any other month could have easily won.
Well done Justin, a great very on trend blackwater portrait of a Squid, also well named. Along with Isabelle, Luisa, MME, and Istvan Zsoldos with some equally impressive macro results.
My final two though were very closely matched, they fulfilled the interestingly framed, well lit, and against a background that supports the subject perfectly ideal of a great macro shot. Wim Bellermans and Kjetil Kalla take a bow as these two pictures are superb.
I loved Wim’s moodily lit dramatic portrait of a subject that is very commonly shot but not very often is it elevated to this level, of a humble Clownfish, and like last months winner they can be found all over the Red Sea in abundance.
In the end though Kjetil Kalla’s shot of a Lemon Goby, just edges it. I like how light and airy it is with the shooter choosing a very wide aperture to render only the eyes and the distinctive eye stripes visibly sharp, against a very blurry background. This displays patience, as they're very tricky to get head on, if at all. And also technical bravery with very little strobe balancing the available light, as shooting wide aperture then you're also battling the ambient light, and a challenge just to get the eyes in focus at such a wide aperture. It’s all too easy to just pick a very small aperture and plenty of strobe, but that would have produced a much less exciting picture and essentially just being a fish ID pic. So well done Kjetil Kalla a fabulous picture.
Duxy has been running escorted photo workshops in Marsa Shagra for the last three years. These workshops are designed for camera users of all experience levels, with any type of underwater camera. Duxy is on hand to share tips and information, troubleshoot individual photography issues, escort early morning and late afternoon dives, and give talks on specific subjects. The Red Sea Photo Camp with Duxy and Alphamarine Photography will be held in Shagra from June 13-20 2023 - full information.
