Now in its 4th year, Northern Beaches Council is holding its annual Underwater Photography competition from Friday 23 August to 15 September 2024. A major component of Council’s Ocean Festival, this year’s competition theme is Life Below Water: The science we need for the ocean we want.
With a prize pool of $4,000, participants can submit their underwater images taken from any of the 5 aquatic reserves on the Northern Beaches. The competition celebrates all skill levels and is open to amateur and professional photographers and videographers.
The Northern Beaches has 80 km of iconic coastline including 24 ocean and harbour beaches supporting the 5 aquatic reserves, five intertidal protected areas as well as national and world surfing reserves.
Our oceans also play a critical role, providing 50% of the oxygen we breathe while absorbing 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions.
This competition is about celebrating this precious underwater environment and the incredible marine life found there.
With 8 categories including the People’s Choice Award, entrants can enter up to 3 images. Videographers can submit one reel.
Categories:
1. Behaviour: Capturing natural behaviour of marine life.
2. Macro: Getting up close to the subject matter.
3. Threated Species: Portraying the vulnerability of a threatened species found, for example: black rod cod, grey nurse shark, green turtle.
4. Human Connection: Capturing the connection between a person/s and marine life (flora / fauna / megafauna), positive or negative. This could include monitoring citizen science projects or research undertaken in one of the Northern Beaches aquatic reserves.
5. Seascapes (wide angle): Capturing the raw beauty of the underwater vista in one of the Northern Beaches aquatic reserves.
6. Youth: For the budding young photographers aged 12 to 17 years old. The winner will be recognised as the Underwater Youth Photographer of the Year 2024.
7. Reels: Capturing the wonder of the biodiversity in our underwater world. Reel length is 15 to 30 seconds duration.
8. People’s Choice Award: public can vote online for their favourite finalist image.
The People’s Choice Award will be available online for voting from 11 October - 3 November 2024.
For more information about the competition and the full terms and conditions, visit our website.