Photo that shows a surface less than 100 x 150 mm. Fish or any fish details like eye or fin does not qualify as a macro photo.
A single image featuring a wide angle composition or taken with a wide angle lens should be submitted to this category. It may also include the diver/model/assistant in his measurement as reference to the environment.
Wolfgang Poelzer, a well known Austrian photographer was born in 1969 in Hallein, Austria. Among many international awards, the ones he is most proud of are the 1998 and 2002 CMAS Underwater Photography World Championship gold medals in macro and wide angle categories, and 2000 Antibes Festival gold medal in black & white category. Since then he become a professional photographer, and today he works as a freelance journalist and photographer.
Francesco Pacienza graduated from the prestigious European Institute of Design with a specialization in fashion photography and jewelry photography; he studied with the Director of photography, winner of 4 Oscar awards, Vittorio Storaro; and continues to teach photography through various means. Yet part of the beauty of his images cannot be memorized, studied or reproduced: they are pure magic.
He uses both his photographic skills and his fertile imagination to create an alternative universe
through photography, whether it is an image of a seahorse or a model or a natural landscape.
He is the editor and chief of the Croatian ScubaLife magazine, and an underwater photographer from Zagreb. Underwater photography has been his passion throughout his entire diving career. He has been diving for almost 30 years and is in diving business for over 15 years, both as an instructor trainer and as a diving center owner in Croatia. He have travelled the world and visited most of the top diving destination, and for him the best diving spot in the world is Jardines de la Reina in Cuba.
Damir was born in 1976 in Zagreb. In May 2015 he won the title of 15th CMAS World Champion in Underwater Photography. Damir emerged as the best all-round photographer, winning gold, silver and bronze medals in the categories closeup, closeup with theme and wide angle with model. He is an SSI diving instructor, the president of “Roniti se mora” diving club, and he also established the Underwater Photo Marathon in 2013, and has been its chief organizer and director ever since.
Nuno Sá was the first Portuguese wildlife photographer awarded in some of the worlds major nature photography competitions, and is the author of six books and several dozens of articles published on National and International magazines, such as National Geographic Portugal. Nuno Sá has cooperated as producer, director of photography or cameraman with several National and International TV channels such as BBC, National Geographic channel, Discovery channel UK, Japanese channel NHK, Austrian ORF/Universum and many others. Nuno Sá was part of the team of main cinematographers of Blue Planet 2 episodes 1 (One Ocean) and 4 (Big Blue), shooting in the Azores and Norway. He is presently producing Portugal´s first major production about the sealife of Portugal.
Pedro Augusto Vasconcelos was born on the island of Madeira on the 10th of March 1977, always in contact with the sea since birth. He started underwater photography competition in 2007 and was vice-champion several times and had participated in 2 World Championships of Underwater Photography. He is responsible for the Underwater commission of photography in the Portuguese Federation. His passion is to capture all of life with his camera, both through photo and video, and to share it with others.