Photographers wow competition judges
Cape Town-based photographer Geoff Spiby was overall winner at this year's Sodwana Bay Shootout photographic competition
CAPTURING the beauty and diversity of the ocean, exceptionally high standards were seen at this year’s iSimangaliso Sodwana Bay Shoot-out.
It was Cape Town photographer Geoff Spiby’s photograph of a midas blenny that scooped first place overall.
He also won the Advanced Underwater category with his portfolio entitled ‘At home where I usually live on the reef’.
‘A big thanks to the organising team and judges and especially to Barry Bey-Leveld from Dive Action for sponsoring the Nauticam housing,’ said Geoff, who was thrilled with his prizes totalling R60 000, including underwater camera housing equipment and a shark diving trip to Fiji.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Geoff’s son Kevin won the prize for photographing the most fish species during the six-day festival.
He caught on camera an impressive 135 of the 1 200 species occurring in this section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.
Professional photographer Allen Walker, a past winner and one of the competition judges, said, ‘The iSimangaliso Sodwana Bay Shoot-out is one of only a handful of competitions around the world held at a specific location where all competitors compete under the same conditions, rules and amount of time.
‘This is the truest test of any underwater photographer’s skills and the fairest form of competition among participants from South Africa and around the world’.
