SoCal Shootout 2011 Winning Underwater Photos

Congrats to all the winners of the 2011 SoCal Shootout

Winning photos and videos are posted below

Winners will be awarded amazing prizes during the next week based on points and winners' ranked choices.

Shootout Judges

The SoCal Shootout was judged by some of the top professional underwater photographers in Southern California: Andy Sallmon, Todd Winner, Richard Salas and Mark Strickland. Richard is the author of "Sea of Light", a coffee table book on Channel Islands underwater photography. Andy, Mark and Todd have all been published multiple times this past year in many of the world's best dive magazines.

Where did people dive

Divers dove at San Diego wrecks & reefs, Orange County oil rigs, in the deep open ocean on blue-water dives, and at the Southern and Northern Channel Islands on September 16th, 17th and/or 18th during a 36 hour window. As you can see, it was a great weekend for marine life sightings.

Not a photoshop contest

Cropping and photoshop edits other than global changes were not allowed in this competition, which means all the photos you see below are pretty much straight out of the camera.

We look forward to having you participate in next year's shootout!

Special Thanks to our Sponsors

Wakatobi Luxury Resort - the best Indonesian dive resort

Hans Christian Andersen live-aboard - great Philippines liveaboard boat

Marco Vincent Dive Resort - a great luxury dive resort

Maluku Divers

Manta Ray Bay Resort - some of the best manta diving in the world

Reef & Rainforest

Club Cantamar Resort - great place for scuba diving La Paz

Hermosa Hotel, Avalon Catalina - great way to dive California

Solmar V live-aboard - best way to dive Mexico

Light and Motion

Sea & Sea

Dyron

Ultralight

Bigblue Dive Lights

Ikelite

Truth Aquatics

Princeton Tec

Spectre Dive Boat

Peace Dive Boat

Channel Islands Dive Adventures (www.channelislandsdiveadventures.com)

The Giant Stride Dive Boat (www.thegiantstride.com)

"Best of Shootout"

"Having Fun" by Nayan Savla, taken at Santa Barbara Island

Winning Photos by Category

Click on photos for a larger view

Wide-Angle

1st place Wide-Angle, Michael Zeigler. "Rock Stars"

2nd place Wide-Angle, Nayan Savla. "Bat Ray on edge"

3rd place Wide-Angle, Walt Conklin. "Underwater charging station"

Honorable Mention Wide-Angle, Matthew Fischbach

Honorable Mention Wide-Angle, Roeland Papen. "Oil Rigs"

Macro

1st place Macro, Michael Zeigler. "Top Snail"

2nd place Macro, Michael Samale. "Baby Cabezon"

3rd place Macro, Brian McHugh

Honorable Mention Macro, Brian McHugh

Honorable Mention Macro, Bill Van Antwerp

Behavior

1st place Behavior, Nayan Savla

2nd place Behavior, Michael Zeigler. "Sea Lion playing with Pyrosome"

3rd place Behavior, Michael Zeigler. "Bat Ray and Krill"

Honorable Mention Behavior, Brian McHugh. "Anemone eating Pyrosome"

Honorable Mention Behavior, Walt Conklin

Portrait

1st place Portrait, Brian McHugh

2nd place Portrait, Ron Watkins

3rd place Portrait, Michael Zeigler

Honorable Mention Portrait, Ron Watkins. "Rockfish yawning"

Honorable Mention Portrait, Matthew Fischbach

Honorable Mention Portrait, Brian McHugh. "Harbor seal fly-by"

Compact Wide-Angle

1st place Compact Wide-Angle, Brent Durand. "Flying Angel"

2nd place Compact Wide-Angle, David Guth. "Sheep crab on guard"

southern california underwater photo shootout winners

3rd place Compact Wide-Angle, Cindy Shaw

Honorable Mention Compact Wide-Angle, Brent Durand

Honorable Mention Compact Wide-Angle, Steve Murvine

Compact Macro

1st place Compact Macro, Eric Aubort. "Anemone closeup"

2nd place Compact Macro, David Guth. "Nudibranch eggs"

3rd place Compact Macro, Nick Lawrence. "Tiny fringehead"

Honorable Mention Compact Macro, Deanna Beck

Honorable Mention Compact Macro, Gerard Lorenzo

Compact Behavior

1st place Compact Behavior, Eric Aubort

2nd place Compact Behavior, David Guth. "Feeding on a Pyrosome"

3rd place Compact Behavior, Steve Murvine

Honorable Mention Compact Behavior, Eric Aubort

Honorable Mention Compact Behavior, Carolyn Wang. "Urchin on skeleton"

Compact Portrait

1st place Compact Portrait, Eric Aubort

2nd place Compact Portrait, Luz Martinez

3rd place Compact Portrait, David Guth. "Buddies"

Honorable Mention Compact Portrait, Nirupam Nigam

Honorable Mention Compact Portrait, Carolyn Wang

Unedited Video Category

Entries were allowed to have up to 3 unedited clips, for a total of 60 seconds of video.

1st place: Walter Marti "Black Sea Bass Shuffle", taken at Catalina Island

2nd place: Xavier Michalet "Dance of the Torpedo Ray", taken at Santa Barbara Island

3rd place: Nannette Van Antwerp "Pulsating Nudibranch", taken at Anacapa Island

4th place: Roger Uzun "Feeding Black Sea Bass", taken at Catalina Island

Honorable mention: Roger Uzun "Dualing sheephead", taken at Catalina Island & Oil Rigs