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PADI Sponsors Up & Coming Category at UPY 2025

Are you an avid underwater photographer and like to capture special moments on your dives? Do you always jump into the water with your camera? Do you have an eye for photography?

If you enjoy combining your two passions of diving and photography, then this competition might be for you!

This year, PADI has partnered with the UK-based Underwater Photographer of the Year competition and is sponsoring the popular ‘Up & Coming’ category.

Underwater Photographer of the Year is an annual photography competition, welcoming entries of breathtaking images shot beneath the surface of the ocean, lakes, rivers or swimming pools around the world. It is open to all photographers, professionals and amateurs.

And, of course, we want to encourage PADI Pros to submit your best images for stand the chance of winning this prestigious award in 2025.

Lisa Stengel/UPY2024“Window of Opportunity”

Previous Category Winners

The winner of the Up & Coming Underwater Photographer of the Year 2024 was Lisa Stengel from the USA. Her image, “Window of Opportunity,” depicts a mahi mahi catching a sardine in a bait ball in Mexico.

Check out all the 2024 winners here.

About UPY

Underwater Photographer of the Year has existed since 2015 in its current format and has grown into one of the most important underwater contests worldwide. However, its origins go all the way back to the Brighton Underwater Film Festival in 1965.

The competition has 13 categories, testing photographers in all sorts of fields and on a variety of topics, from wide angle and macro, to wrecks, portrait, coral reef and categories specific to British waters, where the competition is based.  

In 2024 UPY had over 6500 entries to the competition from photographers all over the world, and in 2025, the competition is set to be even more fierce. The media coverage for this competition and the award winners is huge. News outlets, magazines and TV stations around the globe share the stunning images of the winners, giving the photographers an amazing platform to promote their work. View 2024 international media coverage highlights here.

Who Are the Judges?

The UPY competition has three internationally renowned judges who meticulously assess and discuss each submitted image together over multiple days.

Dr. Alexander Mustard MBE is one of the most famous and awarded underwater photographers, a former marine biologies and a published author of several books and hundreds of articles including in Scuba Diving magazine.
Peter Rowlands is a former British Underwater Photographer of the Year winner and has worked in underwater photography since the 1970s.
Tobias Friedrich is the latest addition to the jury team. The German photographer won the 2018 Underwater Photographer of the Year competition as well as many other prestigious awards, including the 2024 Ocean Photographer of the Year. His images have been published in numerous prestigious magazines.

Sarah O’Gorman/UPY2024
Kim Briers/UPY2024
Yinan Liu/UPY2024

About the Up & Coming category

The Up & Coming category, which PADI is sponsoring in 2025, is specifically for emerging photographers, shining a spotlight on new talent around the world.

Please submit your underwater photos to the competition in this category if you:

Haven’t yet won a major international photography competition;
Don’t regularly have your work published in paid outlets;
And aren’t affiliated with underwater gear manufacturers as a brand ambassador.

The photos can be wide angle or close-up/macro taken on any type of camera, including compact cameras, action cameras or even smart phones. The photographer has free reign on the location and subject of the image.

Just as a little tip – the judges are always on the lookout for something new, imaginative and different. So, get diving, get creative and shoot some epic content.

Tobias Friedrich, one of the UPY judges mentions, “In the Up & Coming category of Underwater Photographer of the Year, we like to award new, talented photographers that haven’t been awarded yet in photography competitions. We are especially looking for unusual and different perspectives, but also perfect, classic shots. PADI is an ideal sponsor for this category as this award is for divers that are either new to diving and want to become better or want to master a new challenge [after a long time in the field]. With better diving skills, through PADI courses, you will also become more relaxed and eventually improve your photography as well.”

Andrew Zimmerman/UPY2024
Olivier Clement/UPY2024
Bryan Blauvelt/UPY2024

The Timeline for UPY 2025

The competition opens on 1 November, 2024. You can submit your work by filling in a simple registration form online and selecting the number of images you want to upload. You can keep changing your submitted images until the competition closes. So, if you get a better photo during the competition period and want to swap, no problem. There is a small fee for entering the competition, and you can find more information as well as the competition rules here.

Submissions can be made until midnight GMT on 4 January, 2025. Once the competition is closed, the judges meet soon after to review and discuss all the submitted photos.

After the decisions have been made, all entrants will be invited to see how each of their images progressed through the contest via the bespoke feedback system.

The results and winners will be announced in mid-February 2025.

Beside the prestige that comes with winning the UPY competition, there are many great prizes to be won. Don’t miss out. Submit your photos!

Good luck to all the passionate underwater photographers who are entering in the PADI sponsored Up & Coming category as well as the other 12 categories available.

The featured image showcased at the top of this blog post was photographed by Tim Glaeser/UPY2024.

The post PADI Sponsors Up & Coming Category at UPY 2025 appeared first on PADI Pros.

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