Underwater Photography Awards

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I have learned several truths about weird fringe groups, and they are as follows:

  1. There is an organization for pretty much every minuscule interest out there.
  2. The organization probably has a political action committee, and they are raising money for it right now.
  3. The have a yearly convention, and there’s a very good chance it’s going to either be in Palm Springs or one of the Disney resort towns this year.
  4. They give awards which they take very seriously.

I learned these truths many years ago when I had the pleasure of working for a short while for the National Association of Truck Stop Operators (NATSO.) This group of folks doesn’t seem to concern itself with what trucks do when they’re moving, what they’re carrying, or what their drivers’ working conditions are. But if you want to talk about rentable showers or the consistently improving quality of biscuits and gravy, these are your folks. Fine folks too, I mean no disrespect.

In fact, I didn’t mean to get so far off on the subject of NATSO, because I wanted to point you to Earther’s page showing the winners of the Underwater Photography Awards. That’s right, there’s no interest here from people who take good pictures on land, it’s not ok to just take good pictures on a boat… apparently for these folks if the camera doesn’t get wet, it doesn’t count.

I admit that the photographs are really stunning and you should take a look at them, I just think that’s a really narrow distinction when you’re already talking about a fairly narrow and expensive hobby. Sure, the internet is a really diverse place but how many underwater photography experts are there going to be anyway? At the risk of drawing their ire, I sort of thought there was Jacques Cousteau, and the guy who did the cinematography for Planet Earth, and that was about it.

Wait, those are motion pictures. This award is just for still pictures. Seriously, this is a very, very narrow specialty. Whatever, just go enjoy the gallery.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.