The 2022 Image Bay Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition: Winners Announced & Behind-the-Lens Stories

What does your secret garden look like? In northern Taiwan, there is a "secret garden" beloved by divers — the Wanghaixiang Chao-Jing Bay Marine Resource Conservation Area in Keelung. To document the rich marine ecosystem of Chao-Jing Bay and promote marine conservation, the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology organized the "2022 Image Bay Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition," receiving a total of 634 entries. Join these master underwater photographers as we dive into Chao-Jing Bay and explore the secret garden!

The Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition: Photographers as Ocean Citizen Scientists

The Wanghaixiang Chao-Jing Bay Marine Resource Conservation Area was established in 2016. In recent years, the number of divers visiting has grown steadily, and the thriving underwater ecosystem has become increasingly visible. Because documenting marine ecosystems requires underwater photography equipment — far more challenging than shooting on land — collecting and accumulating such data is difficult. The competition was therefore organized to capture authentic images of the marine ecology and environment.

This year's competition was divided into a Wide-Angle category and a Macro category, with the addition of a new "Special Animal Behavior Award." We also invited the winning photographers to share the behind-the-scenes stories of their award-winning images!

Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition – Wide-Angle Category

Chao-Jing's iconic soft coral and tube sponges, along with glassfish scattered like stars across the top of the secret garden's reef — and a friendly Grouper that swam into the frame and glanced right at the lens. Photographer 詹品杰 named the shot "Dream. Realm." because capturing that single moment brought together all the defining features of Chao-Jing's underwater world. "It looks just like Chao-Jing in a dream," he said.

Behind the Lens: "Dream. Realm." – Wide-Angle Category

詹品杰 recalls that around August this year, large numbers of glassfish visited the secret garden at depths of roughly 10–20 metres, staying for three to four weeks. "We went out to shoot almost every morning — about four or five days a week. We'd get up at five in the morning, arrive at six, and be in the water by seven."

To capture the interplay of light and shadow across the flat reef landscape, early-morning dives were essential. The greater challenge, however, was whether the moving school of fish would cooperate to achieve the ideal composition. "Shooting every morning, I might take hundreds or even thousands of shots before finally getting a few frames where the movement and direction of the fish were exactly where I wanted them." 詹品杰 also noted that because Chao-Jing has long been a no-fishing zone, the Grouper in the photo was completely unafraid of humans — which is why he was able to photograph it at such close range.

詹品杰 shares that shooting wide-angle requires a thorough familiarity with the underwater terrain and careful attention to tides in order to choose the right time to shoot. The entire seabed is like an underwater studio, and even when he is not in the water he is composing shots in his mind. Having dived at Chao-Jing frequently over the past two to three years, he has the entire underwater environment committed to memory. (You might be interested: He used to keep a saltwater tank — now he dives straight into the ocean!)

Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition – Wide-Angle Category: Full List of Winners and Works

• 1st Place – 詹品杰 – Dream. Realm.
• 2nd Place – 李衍毅 – Flowers in Full Bloom
• 3rd Place – 陳軍豪 – The Flow of Life
• Merit Award – 李衍毅 – Carefree
• Merit Award – 簡晨宇 – Survival of the Fittest
• Merit Award – 詹品杰 – Fish. Tide.

Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition – Macro Category

Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition – Macro Category 1st Place: Sea Whip Shrimp

A spiral sea whip fills the frame with striking dimensionality and depth, a commensal shrimp perched upon it in superb camouflage. Photographer 徐志亮 explained: "Having it sitting right there makes it a perfect subject for nature photography — a unique creature in its habitat, together with its commensal partner."

Behind the Lens: "Sea Whip Shrimp" – Macro Category

The sea whip, roughly as thick as a finger, spirals out to a span the width of an arm. Can you guess how large the sea whip shrimp resting on it is?

The answer: its body is barely about 1 centimetre long! "Even though the sea whip shrimp occupies only a small corner of the frame, the focus is locked on its eye — I needed the eye and the intricate compound-eye texture to come through clearly." Beyond capturing biological detail, 徐志亮 deployed specific photographic techniques to convey the shrimp's "gaze" and body texture. He also used a single strobe fitted with a snoot to render the rarely seen spiral sea whip with a strong sense of shadow and three-dimensionality.

The shot was taken on a sloping wall — almost cliff-like — within Chao-Jing's secret garden. "Shooting against a wall is harder; it's difficult to stay stable, and there's no ground to stand on nearby." 徐志亮 noted that when shooting macro, the camera must remain virtually motionless, yet the sea whip sways with the current, introducing constant uncertainty into focussing. The entire process also demands extreme care — any accidental contact with the sea whip could cause it to retract its tentacles, eliminating the very texture and relief he was trying to capture. (You might be interested: With over a decade of underwater photography experience, how does 徐志亮 "interact with them"?)

Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition – Macro Category: Full List of Winners and Works

• 1st Place – 徐志亮 – Sea Whip Shrimp
• 2nd Place – 葉宏文 – Leopard Shrimp
• 2nd Place – 曾沂羚 – Twinkle Stars
• Merit Award – 徐志亮 – Leopard Shrimp
• Merit Award – 雷鈞合 – Red and White
• Merit Award – 徐志亮 – Juvenile Valentinni's Sharpnose Puffer

Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition – Special Animal Behavior Award

Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition – Special Animal Behavior Award: "Caught! The Culprit Is You!"

A shame-faced crab (Calappa sp.) — its body blanketed in sand and the tips of its large chelae tipped white — carries a gorgonian / sea fan on its back. Photographer 簡晨宇 offered this reflection: "The answer to what damages coral is never a single one. Perhaps it's something right in front of us that we've never noticed."

Behind the Lens: "Caught! The Culprit Is You!" – Special Animal Behavior Award

This past summer, a large gorgonian / sea fan at Chao-Jing was found broken and fragmented, leaving many divers heartbroken. The instinctive assumption was that it had been caused by human activity — and of course, anyone engaging in underwater activities should take care to protect the environment without question. But could there be another culprit responsible for damaging the coral?

Photographer 簡晨宇, who is also a local dive instructor at Chao-Jing, had applied for permission to conduct night dives to assist with research and surveys when he unexpectedly discovered the unusual behaviour of a shame-faced crab using coral as camouflage. "The first time I saw it, there was a sponge about 45 cm wide moving across the seafloor — and half of it had already broken off. I thought to myself, 'Something's not right — there's nobody around, and it's not Ghost Month either…'" He did not take a photo at the time, but after surfacing and discussing the incident with researchers and academics, he learned that it was a shame-faced crab carrying a barrel sponge as a hiding place.

More than a year later, 簡晨宇 stumbled upon the remarkable sight once again — this time, a shame-faced crab moving while carrying a gorgonian / sea fan. The timing coincided with the damaged sea fan incident at Chao-Jing, which gave 簡晨宇 new insight. Although he gave the photograph a humorous title, his intention was not to declare the shame-faced crab the definitive culprit. Rather, it was to illustrate that "when we come to understand the behaviour of various organisms, we realise that many things can happen for a multitude of reasons — and that is precisely why investigation and research are so important." (You might be interested: Can underwater photography truly help scientific research?)

Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition – Special Animal Behavior Award: Full List of Winners and Works

• Special Animal Behavior Award – 葉宏文 – A Fatherly Wossichthys Cardinalfish
• Special Animal Behavior Award – 簡晨宇 – Caught! The Culprit Is You!

Originally scheduled for last year, the Image Bay Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition was postponed due to the pandemic and finally took place this year. As it turned out, the water clarity at Chao-Jing was exceptionally good for an unusually extended period — giving rise to a wealth of outstanding entries that made the judges' task all the more demanding!

Judge Kyōtarō remarked: "Every judge pored over the entries with a magnifying glass, scrutinising every detail. A truly great underwater nature photograph doesn't come easily — it takes an enormous investment of energy, physical endurance, and money, plus a touch of luck."

Thank you all for your enthusiastic participation, which brought this competition to a wonderful conclusion. These photographic works continue to contribute invaluable data to the ocean citizen science database. We hope to inspire more dive photographers to become ocean citizen scientists, and ultimately to foster a world where "everyone is a conservation ambassador." If you'd like to become an underwater photographer and ocean citizen scientist, we invite you to explore BlueTrend's featured articles!

How to Photograph Marine Species for Identification

Related links:

• 2022 Image Bay Chao-Jing Underwater Photography Competition
• National Museum of Marine Science and Technology
• Ocean Citizen Scientists Using Underwater Photography to Support Marine Conservation and Fundamental Research