In early 2019, the biggest news to sweep the underwater photography community was Ace Wu's (referred to hereafter as "Brother Sen") first-place win in the Taiwan region of the 2019 Sony World Photography Awards, with an underwater image of migrating salmon. The wave of attention that followed brought him coverage from major outlets including Apple Daily and the Economic Daily News, and he was even invited for a sit-down interview with host Huang Guangqin on the Taiwanese radio programme POP 搶先報. It all demonstrated that Ace's photographic skills had earned international recognition — and that he had succeeded in using his lens to give non-divers a window into the magnificent and mysterious underwater world. In fact, Ace has only been diving for about 7 years, and has been shooting underwater photography for just 6 — relatively speaking, he is not a veteran of the underwater photography world. Yet how did he break through the beginner's wall and go on to become a consistent award-winner? And what life goals does he hope to achieve through underwater photography? Those are the questions this article sets out to answer.
Ace Wu: Underwater photography is all about perseverance. Make a plan, work hard to see it through — no matter how many difficulties you face or how long it takes, only by persisting do you get the chance to capture a fleeting moment of wonder with the click of a shutter.
Perseverance is the one true key to success
Highlights from the Ace Wu Interview
After watching the video above, you might be surprised to learn that Ace's journey into diving was anything but conventional. Back in 2012, he picked up diving simply to kill time, stumbling into a try-dive at a friend's dive shop on Phi Phi Islands in Thailand. During that period no one taught him how to use a regulator, what decompression was, how to clear his mask, or any of the physical principles of being underwater — yet he kept going, racking up more than 500 scuba tanks' worth of experience. Then one day, Ace saw an overseas liveaboard advertisement on Facebook. Eager to book such a trip, he called the dive shop abroad — only to discover, after being asked a few questions, that diving actually requires a certification. He returned to Taiwan and completed his entry-level dive certification at the Northeast Coast.
Ace believes underwater photography is a journey built on perseverance
His certification course turned out to be equally memorable. On the academic side, he was fascinated by the physics of water — it was the first time he understood why fish appear magnified underwater, and why ascending too quickly carries the risk of decompression sickness (DCS). He absorbed the course material like a sponge, and his instructor praised him as one of the rare students in recent memory who hadn't dozed off during the instructional videos.
Getting into underwater photography was similarly accidental. Ace was living in Vietnam at the time, but regularly flew to Thailand and destinations around the world for diving. His wife, curious about where all the money was going, prompted him to pick up a SONY RX100 camera in 2013 so he could share photos with her. It was the first camera he had ever owned — and at that moment, he had no idea that one day he would become a world-renowned underwater photographer.
The combined weight of diving gear and camera equipment tests every underwater photographer's determination
Underwater Photography: Stage One — Hitting the Beginner's Wall
The biggest source of frustration when he first started shooting underwater was surprisingly simple: his wife could barely tell what he was photographing. Having no experience with topside photography, he had virtually no understanding of the three fundamentals — aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. On top of that, the internet was not yet very developed, so almost all of his reference material came from foreign-language books. He began drawing up battle plans — Option A, Option B, and so on — covering strobe positioning, camera settings, and more. He went into the water again and again to test each approach, diving as many as 8 tanks in a single day, all in pursuit of the image he had in his mind.
Ace Wu: My advice to beginners is to start with macro. Compared to wide-angle, macro requires simpler, more affordable equipment, which is easier on the wallet. More importantly, the frustration level is lower — the biggest danger in underwater photography is shooting poorly, losing confidence, and giving up.
Macro photography is less frustrating for beginners and helps build confidence
Underwater Photography: Stage Two — Photos Are Made for Other People
After a year of shooting, Ace got to know fellow underwater photographer Jim (related link: The Diving Couple and Their Resort Life in the Second Half — JIM & LYNN). Jim suggested Ace try entering competitions. So from 2014 through 2015, Ace submitted entries — and received nothing in return. Not a single award. Not even a shortlist.
The beginner's frustration came crashing back. It was only through a friend's candid feedback that he had his epiphany: if you're shooting for yourself, it's enough that you understand the image. But if your goal is to share your work, it has to be legible to others — they need to feel the mood and story behind the photograph. Today, whether competing or working on commercial shoots, Ace holds fast to that belief every time he presses the shutter.
Ace Wu: I want my photos to let friends who don't dive feel the beauty of the underwater world. And because it's so beautiful, it's also fragile — which is exactly why we need to protect it.
A photograph should move people — Ace wants to use his images to share the beauty of the ocean with as many people as possible
Perseverance — All to Capture a Fleeting Moment
The photograph that earned Ace first place in the Taiwan region of the 2019 Sony World Photography Awards depicts what many call the world's greatest traveller: the Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), captured fighting its way upstream in Canada's Adams River to spawn the next generation. While salmon can be photographed in many places around the world, Sockeye Salmon undergo a uniquely dramatic transformation during their upstream migration — their bodies shift from the blue-green colouration of ocean life to a vivid crimson body and pale green head. The Salmon Run peaks every four years; in 2018, official counts recorded approximately 7 million Sockeye Salmon completing their epic and poignant life cycle.
The same photograph also won first place at World Shoot Out 2018
Everyone knows that Sockeye Salmon exhaust every last reserve of energy swimming upstream to spawn, and die once their mission is complete. As autumn draws to a close near the end of the Salmon Run, the riverbed is blanketed with carcasses — yet those carcasses become the primary source of nutrition for other wildlife through the harsh winter, and will later nourish the newly hatched salmon fry the following spring, sustaining them as they grow and readying the next generation to begin the cycle anew.
Adams River is roughly a 5-hour drive from Vancouver. Air temperatures in autumn hover around 2–8°C, and the average water temperature is just 6°C, making a drysuit an absolute necessity. But the shooting location requires a further 30-minute hike from the car park, meaning every day began with suiting up in the drysuit, hauling camera gear, and trekking through rugged terrain to reach the river. And the hardships didn't end there — Sockeye Salmon are acutely sensitive to shadows cast from the bank, as their natural predator is the grizzly bear. Photographers had to stay mindful of shadow angles at all times. Crouched in a channel groove in the riverbed, Ace also needed to spend time allowing the salmon to grow accustomed to the strange creature holding a large black box. All while keeping one eye on the bank — the national park ranger accompanying the group reminded them to listen for birds: if the birdsong suddenly fell silent, a grizzly bear might be about to appear behind them.
The current was ferociously strong. The moment you spotted a promising shot, you'd move the camera in front of you and press the shutter — and in the very next second, the strobe would be ripped away by the powerful flow. You'd spin 90 degrees, reposition the strobe in line with the current, then turn back and push against the water to keep shooting. It was an extreme test of core strength, and being swept away from your position was simply part of the routine. Once the current carried you off, you'd have to start all over again — finding another channel groove, rebuilding rapport with the salmon — an endless loop that could easily consume 30 precious minutes from an already limited shooting day.
The award-winning photograph — Sockeye Salmon
Ace spent a total of 5 days on this shoot. In the very last hour, the sky finally cleared — and he managed to capture the split-level shot he had envisioned: blue sky, green trees, rushing water, and salmon all in a single frame. Every evening back at the hotel, he wrestled with the urge to quit. Yet somehow, each morning his body would move of its own accord — assembling the camera gear as though the ritual had been written into muscle memory.
Nature Photography Is Hard. Professional Underwater Photography Is Harder.
At a lecture Ace gave at a museum on the mainland, one of the 200 people in the audience posed a question that gave him real pause: "If I want to do what you do, how much money do I need? And what would my income look like?" After a long moment's thought, Ace answered: nature photographers are either quite wealthy or very broke. Making a living solely from selling photographs is a gruelling path, because compared to commercial photography genres like wedding or product photography, the market for nature photography is small, and few clients are willing to pay premium prices for those images. The market for underwater photography is smaller still.
The underwater photography industry is more mature in Europe and North America, with a more developed commercial ecosystem. Aspiring photographers might consider building a profile through social media and competition entries, and then pivoting toward photography-focused destination travel — essentially running photo workshops at dive destinations — to expand their earning potential. That may well be a market worth cultivating for the future.
Entering underwater photography competitions helps you move toward a professional level
What Does Diving and Underwater Photography Mean to You?
Through diving, Ace has met many high-income professionals — pilots, doctors, lawyers. For a judge, a single strike of the gavel shapes someone's entire life; for a doctor, a misdiagnosis can lead to devastating consequences. They turn to diving to decompress from the pressures of their work:
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In the water, you lose your sense of time (with no reference points — no sun position, no tree shadows)
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You lose your sense of direction (no zebra crossings, no traffic flow)
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Your phone has no signal, and no one can reach you
In those 45 minutes, you belong entirely to yourself. You listen to the sound of your own breathing. Camera in hand, through the viewfinder, you focus entirely on one thing — the thing you feel most certain about: underwater photography.
Countless acts of perseverance, all to record a single eternal instant — a flamboyant cuttlefish hatching from its egg
The beautiful underwater world teaches us how to coexist with nature
Ace believes sharks have long been unfairly demonised by humans — he hopes to keep capturing their beauty through his lens
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