We are happy to announce that the winner of the RSDS Photo Competition for July 2024 has been chosen. Congratulations to Csaba Tokolyi with his photo "Moray and Damsel".
Csaba wins a free stay at the RSDS village of his choice. You can view the winning photo, and all the July 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 Csaba, and good luck to all those participating in the coming months!
From Paul Duxfield, our competition judge:
Jumping right in this month of July, I really loved the shot by Csaba Tokolyi of a Moray eating a Damsel, bringing to the fore the harsh realities of life on the reef, its a fish eat fish world out there!
The other two pictures that really grabbed me were Ruth Wanger’s colourful macro shot and Paul Eljkemanns tightly framed shot of a carrier crab. What really elevates these two is the texture that is clearly evident in both cases, Ruth’s carefully framed coral goby is sitting atop coral that you can almost feel the texture of. Whilst Paul’s is dramatically lit to highlight the lumps bumps and every hair of the combined duo of crab and anemone, difficult shots to pull off and not make them look too plain.
Another nicely lit shot, but in my opinion could be more strongly framed is Peter Annema’s Ghost Pipe Fish, which has been lit to separate a tricky subject against a plain background, and if it had been better positioned in the frame would have been in with a chance of the top shot.
My favourite from July though was a tough choice between the aforementioned from Ruth, Paul and Csaba, but I’ve come down in favour of Csaba in the end, the dramatic lighting and framing and the story contained within the shot showing behaviour, great picture.
Well done Csaba.
Duxy has been running photo workshops in Marsa Shagra & Marsa Nakari for the few years. These workshops are designed for camera users of all experience levels, with any type of underwater camera. The workshop dates for 2025 will be announced soon.
