Favorite Images of 2020

[adamhanlon 0]

Traditionally, @Alex_Mustard started a popular thread on the Wetpixel forum that called for people to post their favorite images front he preceding year. To celebrate the image making opportunities for 2020, he has shared his favourite images on Wetpixel Live, to inspire people to share their imagery on the "2020 Favorites" thread over on the forums. Please head on over, check out the thread and share yours. The year has been challenging in many ways, so this is perhaps a good way to celebrate what we actually managed to do?

 

 

[adamhanlon 0]

So 2020 has been a strange year for us all!

My favorite images from the year are, firstly this image of Boaz Samorai on the Satil Wreck, during the 2020 Red Sea Festival in Eilat, Israel: 

It is traditional on these threads to cheat and add more than one image, so my second image is from my preliminary testing of the innovative Nauticam EMWL lens at Capernwray Diving Canter, UK

Here's hoping that 2020 will bring more opportunities!

[Alex_Mustard 0]

I shot a lot of useful, but very little stunning underwater photos in 2020. My favourite photos from the highly unusual year are memories of family days at the coast. We visited rock pools in England, Wales and Scotland during the year allowing me to photograph how limpet body shapes change on the different coasts - fascinating stuff. I am not sure anyone will ever seen my limpet portfolio, but here are a couple of Isa enjoying rock-pooling, whatever the weather (SW England and NE England).

[hyp 111]

I was lucky enough to be on a trip to Bali and Lembeh right before everything got locked down. We actually were on the last plane going from Singapore back to Germany...

My first shot was taken in Bali.

Second one was shot in Lembeh.

 

PS: Is there anything that can be done about the upload size on Wetpixel. It really makes sharing images a bad experience and it's such a shame considering the effort we all put in to maximise image quality.

[gobiodon 62]

I have only moving images. This sort movie summarizes well 2020 and the fact that I was restricted to dive "in the backyards", lakes and rivers in Germany. I entered this movie to the actioncup underwater video competition and won the action camera section: 

 

 

[Lasongo 8]

Monterey, California.  September 2020.

[edpdiver 21]

I had only one dive trip in 2020, and I am grateful that it was a very good one to Raja Ampat on the Gaia liveaboard. Here are a couple of images from that trip. 

First is a nice fishy reefscape.

004_P1220113 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr

and here is a macro shot of a bubble coral shrimp

027_P1270240 bubble coral shrimp by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr

[Tom_Kline 141]

Very happy to see the return of this topic!

My fave reflects my long-term salmon project that was influenced more by the weather that was excessively wet in 2020 and poor salmon runs than by covid.

I took this shot during one of the few and short sunny spells in early July before any salmon had returned to this stream. I used a lens that I had used for this same purpose (juvenile salmon) but with film back in the 90s, the Nikonos RS 28mm. This was one of the lenses that Harald H brought with him to DEMA in '19 following the SEACAM mdification. I have used several other lenses for a similar purpose but was challenged by the nature of underwater optics. This lens has a much flatter field as well as being a sharper water-contact lens. Its small size also helped as the lens was not completely submerged due to the shallow water depth. Rocks on the bottom (get in the way) did not help either.

 

[troporobo 244]

Like everyone else, there were not many opportunities to dive.  We remain under the world's longest general community quarantine here, now over 10 months.  But under certain conditions it's been possible to dive since October, but visibility is not so good at this time of year and photo ops are limited to tight macro.  So I'll just post this frogfish portrait that perfectly captures how 2020 felt.  Looking forward to getting in the water this coming weekend and capturing the opposite emotion for 20201!

 

 

[PeteAtkinson 53]

Recovering from heart surgery meant I couldn't dive all year so I concentrated on swimming pools for fun and created a FB page Phuketpools This picture at Boat Lagoon resort is one of my favourites. 50m vis.

[Isaac Szabo 90]

I also mostly stayed close to home last year. Thankfully, the Buffalo National River is only 10 minutes away. These images of a River Cooter and Longear Sunfish were two of my favorites of the year:

[Nickmore 3]

Hi all, very few UW photographic opportunities for me in 2020. My best day was spent with the blue sharks of Penzance, Cornwall, UK.

[Architeuthis 155]

Despite the corona catastrophy, diving was not really that bad this year: Early this year we did a three week trip to Raja Ampat, that was planned since long (when we left in the second half of February corona was not considered a major threat yet and on the day we returned the first lock-down was announced in Austria).

Here one of my favorites from Raja Ampat:

In summer we managed to escape for two weeks to the Adriatic, that we love (Island of Lastovo). Later, when corona came back, we did some diving in our domestic lakes, what means cold, but sometimes crystal clear water.

Here a favorite of mine from Fernsteinsee:

Hoping for improvement soon. Our  (optimistic) plans start with April/May, but the lakes will be open in case travelling is not possible...

 

Wolfgang

Edited January 23, 2021 by Architeuthis

[atus 20]

It's very difficult to choose a couple of pics  of last year diving, but this topic made me review all my pictures and think what I want to do next year. 2020 has been a year with no trip, so all the pictures are from where I live, Ibiza. 

Simón Vila Font 

 

Pou d'es lleó 

 

SVF20201114194 

[adamhanlon 0]

What a fantastic bunch of images!

Thank you all for sharing them.

[ChrisRoss 150]

Living in Sydney Australia, we have amazing temperate water diving on our doorstep much of it accessible as shore dives.  Corona has caused some restrictions but because the  cases were well controlled, apart from about 2 months we have been able to dive locally freely.  My favourite from the year is finally finding and getting a pleasing shot of the doughnut nembrotha - Nembrotha rosannulata.  These nudis are only found on one series of dive sites off shore south of Sydney, this one was at Barren's Hut - an open ocean site  about 500m offshore off the Royal National Park.  Boats only run there occasionally and often can't head out due to the weather/swells.  I've been wanting to shoot one of these for a long time.   I captured this one posing nicely on it's food source - the Purple  Acsidian Sigillina cyanea:

My other favourite for the year - I finally found a red fingered anglerfish by myself without any directions.  This one a grey morph was found near Sutherland point near Kurnell in Botany Bay pretty much straight offshore from where Cook landed all those years ago.  Taken on New Year's Eve on an early morning dive in quite nice conditions for Sydney with 10m plus visilbility.

A larger image can be found here: Doughnut nembrotha

Larger image here:Red Fingered Angler

 

[troporobo 244]

Chris, that is a fantastic nembrotha (and a fantastic image of it)!  We have lots of varieties of them in Anilao but I’ve never even seen a pic of this one before. Thanks a lot for sharing it. 

[ChrisRoss 150]

47 minutes ago, troporobo said:

Chris, that is a fantastic nembrotha (and a fantastic image of it)!  We have lots of varieties of them in Anilao but I’ve never even seen a pic of this one before. Thanks a lot for sharing it. 

Thanks, they are a great looking nudi and they also come in rose pink (rather orange like this one).

[davehicks 99]

I managed to squeeze in one trip to the Galapagos in Feb before locking down this year, so most of my diving has been local in Puget Sound near Seattle.  Here are three of my favorites for the year:

[Whale Shark at Darwin's Arch]

 

[Giant Pacific Octopus in the Hood Canal WA USA]

 

[Wolf Eels at Sunrise Beach, Gig Harbor WA, USA]

[onuruzmez 1]

I had only one trip 2020    Kaş, Turkey

Edited February 9, 2021 by onuruzmez

[phxazcraig 116]

Boy am I sad to say I have 0 images from 2020 as I missed diving the whole year.   2019 gave me hundreds of keepers.

[Walt Stearns 52]

Between the onset of the Covid 19 storm and all the related lockdowns in the US, my travel plans for 2020 went to zip. Fortunately, I live in South Florida with the Palm Beach County coastline as my back yard, with allowed me to still undertake some really good diving in from Goliath groupers, sharks and blackwater.  Here’s two from 2020.

[TimG 62]

Nice pics, Walt. The ?Gurnard especially.

[Walt Stearns 52]

TimG, that is one of the several varieties of juvenile flying fish we see here on blackwater dives.

 

[TimG 62]

12 minutes ago, Walt Stearns said:

TimG, that is one of the several varieties of juvenile flying fish we see here on blackwater dives.

 

Very cool!