We are happy to announce that the winner of the RSDS Photo Competition for April 2021 has been chosen. Congratulations to Gennady Elfimov with his photo “Lemon“!
Gennady wins a free stay at the RSDS village of his choice. You can view the winning photo, and all the April 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 Gennady, and good luck to all those participating in 2021!
From Paul Duxfield, our competition judge:
Ooooh this was quite difficult again and I want to talk about the overall entries of being of typical high standard and also how judging your great pictures is
really making me pine for some quality Red Sea diving, as soon as possible please British government.
I’m hoping to get out for an extended stay in November through to the end of the Red Sea Photo Camp in early December so i’ve got everything crossed that we can visit (and return home) easily soon.
Ok complaining over.
These are the shots that really caught my eye, the first shot I saw was Sibylle Malinke’s lovely dolphin shot. A previous two times winner, and regular competition entrant, Sibylle has masterfully composed the dolphin on the diagonal with the diver balancing the composition perfectly in the background, with enough breathing room around the animal and diver.
The next shot that I lingered over was Rudolf Gonda’s Scorpion Fish a lovely bright red again composed on the diagonal with the surface visible, and sun coming from behind a contrasting dark blue, great composition and good control of the camera balancing foreground and background exposure.
Having the surface in the shot by tilting the camera up so you can see the ripples usually works well in a picture.
Of the two classic Red Sea reef scenes my preference was for Laszlo Maraczi’s shot as the reef is so abundant with Anthias the little orange gold fish so typical of the reefs in this part of the world.
The pair of single clown fish images just show how different you can make these popular subjects look.
I thought that Christopher Jay’s was the more technically able but Pamela Fischer's was the one that i marginally preferred, a classic example of your heart overruling your head in the decision making process.
So now to the two shots that were my final choices and they couldn't have been more different in all honesty.
In this instance though I have come down in favour of the head over the heart, as I eventually chose Gennady’s picture of a Lemon Goby, over the excellent picture of a Dugong exhibiting its behaviour oblivious to the photographer, whilst its eating the huge quantities of Sea Grass it needs to maintain its massive size.
I love the Dugong picture and it definitely won my heart, but it’s a little too tightly cropped and the colour correction could have been marginally warmer.
And whilst Gennady’s Lemon Goby is a fairly classic, often seen depiction of these shy fish, I know how hard he has worked, both with the technical side of things but also getting into position, so his diving skills have been equally taxed.
If you’ve ever shot these infuriating creatures you’ll know that you get all lined up, avoiding the stag horn coral they live deep within, only to be thwarted at the last second as the fish darts away, so you’ll then need to spend ages getting lined up all over again.
So a worthy winner, well done Gennady, but equally well done to all the others who’ve entered this competition this month.
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 2021 Red Sea Photo Camp with Duxy and Alphamarine Photography has been postponed and will now be held in Shagra from November 30- December 11 2021 - full information.
