We are happy to announce that the winner of the RSDS Photo Competition for December 2020 has been chosen. Congratulations to Jay Christopher with his photo “Shoal Below“!
Jay 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 Jay, and good luck to all those participating in 2021!
From Paul Duxfield, our competition judge:
"You’ll be seeing this in January i'm guessing so Happy New Year to you all. I hope you’re all safe and well. There is a half metre of snow outside here in a very cold North Yorkshire so judging Red Sea pictures in the middle of a lockdown with my garden all white is quite surreal and is making me really yearn for some diving and an end to all this that's going on in the world at the moment.
It was a very strong turnout of entries this month, with some absolute beauties, but there was a clear winner in my opinion.
Before I talk about that though I’d like to mention a couple of the standout pictures which in other months may well have won the top spot.
Laszlo Maraczis' shot of a head on Giant Moray is superb, perfect eye focus, you can see all its teeth and it's a great example of a Moray picture, also Elena Jaeger’s shot of the pod of Spinner Dolphins is beautifully captured and exposed, both lovely pictures, and as I said at another time may well have won a first place.
However for sheer technical mastery combined with time of day, and composition Jay Christopher's sunrise split shot ticks a lot of boxes.
This picture shows how you need to be observant and sometimes right under your nose, in this case close to the jetty is a school of hunting baitfish hanging about. You then have to decide shall I come back when the daylight is more subdued, getting up early for the sunrise? or go in for the sunset, whilst every one else is relaxing over a beer! You then need to figure out your exposure and focus for the bottom half of the picture getting your strobes output and positioning right, whilst keeping the top half correctly exposed and focussed also.
I do a dedicated talk on my trips exactly how to shoot a sunset split, and there's quite a lot to remember.
All of these things can be learned though but putting it all together requires a bit of patience and forethought so well done Jay for bringing all these elements together in a cracking and worthy winner - Duxy"
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 will be in Shagra from June 8-19 2021 - full information.
