Take 3 Photo Contest Winners Announced at the Underwater Tour Awards 2022
Take 3 is delighted to announce the winners of the Take 3 Photo Contest in partnership with the third annual Underwater Tour Awards 2022.
The Underwater Tour Awards encourage and inspire passion for photography, exploration and discovery from behind the lens and help to raise awareness of the world’s incredible, fragile marine and aquatic inhabitants and their environments.
A prestigious annual international competition, the Awards’ organisers introduced a new novice category in 2022, the Take 3 Contest, where all proceeds from entrants’ fees plus additional generous donations were passed to Take 3 to support environmental education programs and activities.
Open to everyone who snaps pictures on their phone or on any camera, the Take 3 contest embraces the Take 3 for the Sea message. Photos could be taken on any camera or device, above, in, around, or under any marine or freshwater area.
The winners were announced by Darren Jew together with all the Underwater Tour Awards winners in a special 20-minute recorded presentation released on youtube on Sunday 18 December at 8pm AEDT. You can see the ceremony here.
The Take 3 Contest 2022 winners are:
WINNER 1
Emma Turner, NSW
Oblivious to the dislocation of a more natural habitat option, a goby makes a discarded plastic bottle its home. © Emma Turner
TAKE 3 JUDGES COMMENTS: The image scored highly in all areas of judging criteria, especially impact and mood. The small scale of the fish when compared to the enormity of the plastic bottle that surrounds it speaks to the colossal grip human consumption has on our suffering marine life – a message strongly aligning with Take 3’s core values. This photograph’s ability to tell a complex story so simply and effectively made it stand out as a winner.
WINNER 2
Jules Casey, VIC
A discarded plastic cup floating under Blairgowrie pier with a tiny juvenile Seahorse inside. © Jules Casey
TAKE 3 JUDGES COMMENTS: The recycling symbol in this photograph speaks volumes – clearly the system is failing. Composed well, the small seahorse appears to be gripping onto a piece of seagrass surrounded entirely by a world of plastic sending a clear message.
RUNNER UP 1
Jean-Louis Lebreux, QLD
Where a calm sea matches the horizon, an Indo-pacific Bottlenose dolphin broke the surface to show the story of his scar. © Jean-Louis Lebreux
TAKE 3 JUDGES COMMENTS: The horrific and violent injury displayed as a salient element speaks loudest to the emotional shock value. This creates many questions in the viewers mind making a thought provoking and well-structured photograph.
RUNNER UP 2
Cathy Finch, QLD
Soul destroying. Confronting. Important to see. We need to fight to change the ugly side of our beaches, not hide behind them in shame. Greta Beach, Christmas Island. © Cathy Finch
TAKE 3 JUDGES COMMENTS: This photograph depicts the overwhelming horror of the plastic pollution crisis. Speaking clearly to Take 3 for the Sea’s message, the sheer amount of discarded materials pilled in a pristine natural environment offers a dark contrast creating a huge impact on the audience.
“Congratulations to all winners and well done to all entrants” organiser of the Awards, Darren Jew Darren Jew encouraged. “As partners together, The Underwater Tour Awards and Take 3 can amplify the wonder of the Underwater World and empower everyone to ‘take 3’ to protect it”.
Jacquie Riddell, CEO of Take 3 for the Sea added, “The amazing contest images have taken us on an extraordinary visual tour of the underwater environment. The photos have told the story of Take 3’s environmental action and we’ll put them to great use, sharing them with our global community. Your donations are so greatly appreciated and will help us fund our programs and activities, saving our oceans from plastic. A big thank you too to our generous partners for their wonderful prizes’.
