BIUPC founder scoops top prize with novel composition from the river Test in Hampshire
The British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP) are once again pleased to announce results of The British and Irish Underwater Photography Championship (BIUPC) which was held on 26th August 2023.
For Underwater Photographers, a “splash-in” is a competition that takes place on a single nominated day, when photographers jump into the water to compete against each other. Traditionally, these competitions have been restricted to particular locations, but BIUPC is unique in that it has developed a format to allow pictures to be taken anywhere within the coastal or inland waterways of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. This has hugely increased the richness and variety of pictures submitted for judging, and so truly allows for a snapshot of the underwater environment captured photographically around these shores under time pressure.
There were two categories for competitors this year, mainly because of advances in camera technology:
- Wide Angle
- Close Up
Each category has one winner, and the overall Champion is chosen from those two images 2 images. The ultimate prize is the coveted Peter Scoones memorial Trophy.
There is also a category for:
- Human Impact on UK and Irish Marine and freshwater Environments (but this isn’t included in Overall Champion).
There were 36 entrants, 33 of whom submitted 75 images. Results were announced online at the BSoUP monthly meeting held on 19th September 2023. The top 4 of each category are displayed here and comprise a:
- Winner
- Runner up
- Highly Commended x 2
The judges were Damien McGuirk and Simon Rogerson. The standard was very high, and the decision about whose image would be Overall Champion (between Paul Colley’s wide angle and Dan Bolt’s close up) proved to be very difficult.
Results for BIUPC 2023 were as follows:
