Posted on 04/19/2012 9:44:57 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A dashing-red sea slug that seems to be hamming it up for the camera in the U.S. Virgin Islands has come into focus in this year's winning underwater photograph in an annual contest put on by the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science.
More than 700 images were submitted for this year'sunderwater photography contest, Ximena Olds' photo of the headshield sea slug against a brilliant background of green seagrass taking home the "best overall" award. Olds is a local Key Biscayne, Fla., resident.
The photos were judged by a panel of experts that included: photographer and UM lecturer Myron Wang; underwater photographer Nicole Wang; and Michael Schmale, a professor at Rosenstiel School Marine Biology & Fisheries. They awarded prizes in three categories, macro, fish or marine animal portrait, and wide angle. Best overall photo was the equivalent of first place.
The first-place award in the macro-photography category went to Canadian Todd Mintz's photo of cute-as-can-be yellownose gobies (Elacatinus randalli) peering out from brain coral in Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean.
A swirl of lionfish, Pterois species, in the Red Sea snapped by Mark Fuller of Israel snagged first place in the wide angle category.
Though not a category, the judges awarded the "Best UM Student Photo," which went to Kyra Hartog's image of a whale shark. The whale shark is one of the most mysterious creatures and the largest fish in the world. They live their lives mostly out of sight; in fact, little is known about where they go and what they do when they aren't in shallow-water feeding groups in Mexican and other waters during springtime. Satellite-tagging studies as well as a genome-sequencing project are underway that could shed light on the beasts.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Beautiful.
Thanks, nickarraway.
Beautiful, beautiful photographs!
I think the jelly is my favorite.
Thanks so much for posting ^^
The crab looks like its a negative, even.
For me, when I see “Sea Creatures” and “True Beauty” in the same sentence I have a vision of Mermaids. But for reefers like my wife who has a 250 gallon salt water reef aquarium - sea slugs, angelfish, soft corals, crabs and mollusk of all kinds are like fish porn. She has taken some amazing photos of her own collection, which has been used in magazines and brochures.
Some weird looking bugs down there!
Ping
Those are some really neat pictures. That last fish is scary looking. There are some weird things in the oceans.
Is that first one a Secret Service file photo of the Colombian hooker?
Awe yes, those rare diving beach birds do photograph well don’t they ;D!
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