We are happy to announce that the winner of the RSDS Photo Competition for September 2025 has been chosen. Congratulations to Laszlo Maraczi with his photo "Backlit".
Laszlo wins a free stay at the RSDS village of his choice. You can view the winning photo, and all the September 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 Laszlo, and good luck to all those participating in the coming months!
From Paul Duxfield, our competition judge:
I’ll keep it short and sweet this month not because we had some great entries, particular mention goes to Pamela Fischer, Paul Eijkemans and Lieve Siepert for their shots, but because my three first choices were so good. And they were perfect examples of why it’s not the rarity of the creature, or equipment used in particular but more that a great photograph can be made of most encounters if you use great technique, lighting and above all good solid composition.
So Sandra Stalker, Laszlo Maraczi and Justin Ormond take a bow please, as these images from you guys were great examples well executed of very common subjects. Represented in very different ways, and in one case in particular maybe even a little bit dangerous to achieve!!!
Ok Sandra (Stalker), your shot of the Squirrel or Rabbit Fish, I always get them mixed up, is a beautiful composition that is deceptively simple at first glance being a sharp red splash against a dreamy blur of green, but not that easy to execute as it combines the technical foresight to choose a slow shutter speed combined with a burst of flash to both illuminate and freeze the main subject, but blur the background by moving the camera. If you’re familiar with the technique know as shutter dragging, then you’ll also realise that creatures that like to hang out under darker ledges or in the shade will allow you to set a slow enough shutter speed, but also you're then presented with the high chance that you’ll lighten the background too much with the strobe so I’m guessing a snoot was maybe used here as well? All of this requires a bit of practice and knowledge of all these combined techniques, and of course technique alone isn't good enough, as the composition also has to be strong. So all the boxes are definitely ticked here and you're left with an impressionistic rendering of a regular sighting here at the Marsa’s, but shown in a very unique and individualistic way.
Laszlo (Maraczi) your shot of what is probably the commonest Nudibranch in the Red Sea, a Pyjama Slug is displayed almost demonically by your use of creative lighting. This is a great example of why moving your strobes around is vital to increasing your options in your underwater photographs. I’m a big advocate of this and on the Fotofest and my other workshops I urge people to get those strobes moving, in this case the light is coming from behind and the more translucent parts of a creature are lit in such a way, combined with the right adjustment to the strobe output, the overall exposure, controlled by the aperture and the shutter speed, to such an effect that this final result is achieved. You’d never learn this though, if once you’d taken the normal shot you just moved away onto the next subject. If you stay with a subject and experiment, you’ll definitely make lots of mistakes but you wont learn otherwise.
I can even show people how to do this with the simpler cameras like the Olympus TG7’s and a single strobe, so you don’t need super fancy expensive camera setups either. Again the composition is everything here and the low angle combined with the three quarters on view with the aforementioned lighting skill has turned this into a great shot.
Ok, my final choice of the tree pictures that instantly grabbed my attention was this great portrait picture by Justin Ormond of a big Blue Trigger Fish. Check out those teeth! This is as much an example of diving skills, patience, and a little bit of courage in all honesty, as whilst the big Blue Trigger Fish is not nearly as aggressive as it’s fiercer cousin the Titan Trigger Fish, during nesting season they can both attack, and they mean business and I’ve seen those big teeth of theirs draw blood and occasionally require stitches for those souls brave or foolish enough to get this close. You've got to approach cautiously, and with slow movement, so solid dive skills, good buoyancy trim, and situational awareness are of premium importance, along with understanding of the marine life and at least the potential understanding that this creature could do you harm. Justin has got to be really close here, within centimetres, as he’s using a very wideangle lens, which is also giving the perspective effect and combined with the head on view is what creates this first class portrait of a beautiful if occasionally feisty fish.
It was a tough choice again this month they were all good front runners, but in the end I’m drawn to Laszlo’s shot the most as being the one that edges it for me, so well done a masterpiece in a creatively lit nudibranch picture.
Well done to everyone else, keep up the good work and keep sending those entries in, and maybe you’d like to join our Fotofest next year in June? This workshop is designed for camera users of all experience levels, with any type of underwater camera.
