We are happy to announce that the winner of the RSDS Photo Competition for August 2025 has been chosen. Congratulations to Faycal Chabini with his photo "The Bubble".
Faycal wins a free stay at the RSDS village of his choice. You can view the winning photo, and all the August participants here.
If you would like a chance to win, simply register on our website and upload your photos from our competition page. Each day we choose a 'photo of the day' from the selection of entries. Anyone can register on our website and vote on photos entered into the competition. At the end of the month our Photo Pro and photography workshop leader, Paul ‘Duxy’ Duxfield, looks at the votes and chooses a winner from the highest scoring photos. Full terms and conditions and prize details are available here.
Congratulations again to Faycal, and good luck to all those participating in the coming months!
From Paul Duxfield, our competition judge:
Being brave and thinking outside the box. That’s the feeling behind my decision this month.
I’ll be quick first, and say that I really loved Laszlo Maraczi’s shot Thousands, and it was one I kept coming back to. There’s something pleasing about it’s uniformity and repetition, I love it.
But, I’m feeling brave also and the two pictures that I eventually settled upon don’t both resonate equally with the public vote. One of the shots clearly was a huge front runner and I really love it, but as I said I’d like to be brave.
This isn't a wildlife competition despite the overwhelming amount of shots entered from the underwater natural world, which I don’t ever get tired of but it is a refreshing change when I get a shot that bucks this trend.
I love to see shots that are graphic and inventive and a little bit different and show a style developing within the photographer.
So two months in a row Faycal Chabini has entered shots featuring the diver as the primary subject, I loved the dramatic shot he put in last time with the diver looking skywards, but felt it was just missing a certain something.
However my initial choice before seeing Faycal’s shot was by Ryan Stalker which is a technical tour de force, and just shows that even a very common subject like a Lionfish can be elevated by great composition and framing, and ths was clearly the popular public choice too.
But I said I’d be brave and despite not falling in the top tier of the public vote, Faycal’s very graphic shot of a lookdown on a diver blowing a bubble ring, perfectly framed with a beautiful blue background with gentle sun beams. A great image and the sort of professional shot that you might see on the cover of a magazine.
So this months winner has to be Faycal's shot, for being different, but commiserations to Ryan as maybe in another month he may well have won.
Well done to everyone else, keep up the good work and keep sending those entries in, and maybe you’d like to join our second Fotofest this year in December? It’s quickly filling up and we’re limiting the spaces to give everyone the best experience. This workshop is designed for camera users of all experience levels, with any type of underwater camera.
