Trials and Tribulations (of a Splash-In)

Runner up in the Open Close Up Category by Nick Robertson-Brown

Each year, in the UK, there are at least 4 Splash-In competitions that we look at entering. A splash-in competition is one where you enter images taken on the day. There are competitions in St Abbs, Plymouth, Lundy and North Wales. All the underwater photographers have the same weather and sea conditions to deal with, so you should get an even playing field to test you skills against the others that have entered. They are tough! More often than not, the weather is terrible and you can measure the visibility in cm!

Caroline's shot of a shanny on a pier leg at Trefor

This year, due to the house and business move as well as other diving commitments, we have only managed to compete in one such competition. The NUPG splash-in was held around the coastline of North Wales a couple of weeks ago. The sun was shining, and whilst some of the dive sites were blown out, Trefor Pier was flat calm, with fantastic photography conditions. We had agreed to meet up with a few others who were entering the competition - and perhaps we should not have done! Keep the best dives site to yourself? Or share your plans with others? That is the question! In total, 6 of us were diving the same dive site, but with differing ideas of the shots we wanted to walk away with.

The winner and runner-up in both Macro and SLR categories were from this one dive, when the photographers had the whole of Anglesey and North Wales to choose from. Nick managed runner-up in both categories. A solid performance. Brett and John won a category each - well done! The thing about splash-in competitions that bothers me is not the diving and competing on the one day - I love that! it is the having to select the images to enter under such time pressure. I like to take my time, selecting a range of images, edit them a bit, look through them again, eve get them printed and spread out on our big table. But once you have dived, downloaded to your PC, you only have time to drive to the competition location and hand in the first decent image you find. I did not even get time to shower! And I was hosting the evening!

Caroline's atmospheric shot of the sunbeams hitting the pier

Perhaps this style of competition is not for me. But I will still keep going to as many as I can. I had the best day diving in the UK that one could wish for. We had the wonderful company of some great underwater photographers, superb conditions (I even got a sun tan), and the wildlife and landscape would have inspired any underwater photographer. So maybe it is not all about the winning after all. 

Nick also got runner-up in the Open Wide Angle category with the shot of Caroline looking at a shanny

For more information about the NUPG Splash-In and to see the images that won please click here.