Ocean Photographer of the Year 2026 is now accepting entries!
Prior to entering your images, you may wish to read through our FAQs here or draw inspiration from previous winners here.
If you are ready to enter, please follow the 3-step entry process below, carefully reading all instructions as you go. Good luck, and thank you for your submission!
3-Step Entry
Choose your categories
Submit your photographs
Enter your details and pay entry fee
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Step 1
Choose your categories
Select your categories by clicking ENTER. Submission to each category costs £10.
Ocean Conservation Photographer of the Year (Hope)
£10
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Ocean Conservation Photographer of the Year (Hope)
Awarded to the photographer who most powerfully communicates stories of hope and recovery. This could focus on a particular species, a wider ecosystem or human endeavour in finding solutions to the problems we face. What does ocean conservation hope mean to you? And how have you effectively captured that through imagery?
Category photograph by Ocean Conservation Photographer of the Year (Hope) 2023 winner, Sylvie Ayer.
Ocean Conservation Photographer of the Year (Impact)
£10
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Ocean Conservation Photographer of the Year (Impact)
Awarded to the photographer who most powerfully communicates any of the many perils facing the ocean today. This could focus on the plight of a particular animal, species or wider ecosystem. What does ocean conservation impact mean to you? And how have you effectively captured that through imagery?
Category image by Ocean Conservation Photographer of the Year 2022, Simon Lorenz.
Awarded to the photographer who most successfully translates our species’ love and fascination of life in, on and around the ocean. The ocean is full of adventure, whether you’re sailing across vast expanses of it, surfing in tight barrels on remote reefs or diving on pristine drop-offs. What does ocean adventure mean to you? And how have you effectively captured that through imagery?
Category photograph by Ocean Adventure Photographer of the Year 2023 runner-up, Gergo Rugli.
Awarded to the photographer who most successfully translates the story and beauty of a particular animal, species or ecosystem. Submissions should be full of colour and wonder, bringing the magic of the ocean realm to life.
Image by OPY2024 category winner, Manuel Castellanos Raboso.
Awarded to the photographer who creates imagery of particular aesthetic power. Beautiful, imaginative, creative, elegant. Colour and black and white submissions are both encouraged.
The ocean is vast, powerful and seemingly boundless - its scale often captured in sweeping scenes of drama and spectacle. Yet beyond these wide perspectives lies another world, one defined not by size but by detail. Ocean Unseen: Hidden Worlds celebrates the intricate, the intimate and the easily overlooked, revealing the textures, patterns and small-scale moments that tell a deeper story of life in and around the sea.
The Human Connection Award: People and Planet Ocean
£10
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The Human Connection Award: People and Planet Ocean
The Human Connection Award: People and Planet Ocean is a celebration of our species being a part of nature, not apart from nature.
Submissions should highlight an individual's connection with the ocean (photographer or subject), whether that be an image of a marine biologist hard at work in the field, an image of an Indigenous person fighting for the protection of their ancestral coastline or any other instance of a person connecting with our blue planet.
We can't wait to see your images of beautiful ocean connection!
Awarded to the photographer who most convincingly showcases a long-held commitment to ocean conservation through a striking body of work – strong enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the judges. A total of ten images must be submitted, taken at any time during the photographer’s working life. Award-winning images can be submitted.
Celebrating inspirational women in ocean photography. Here’s to the boundary-pushers and innovators; the pioneering spirits and the resolute; the forward-thinkers and the cause-committed. Here’s to femininity, withoutcompromise. Which female photographer most inspires you? Local or international, amateur or professional, famous or not. Let’s raise them up. Let’s inspire the next generation of ocean women through their example. Let’s push for parity.
Photograph by 2022 Female Fifty Fathoms Award winner, Brooke Pyke.
- For a reminder of file specs and entry rules, read this.
- When entering multiple images into a category, please multi-select your images and caption sheet (Word) from your computer and upload as one bundle.
- Changed your mind on entering a category? Delete it in Step 3.
- Nominating someone in the Female Fifty Fathoms Award? You'll complete this on the final page.
**If you encounter an 'Error' message during entry, please send a WeTransfer with your images to submissions@ocean.photo and we will send you a payment link**
Step 3
Confirm details and pay
Entry costs £10 per category.
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Before payment can be processed and your photographs accepted, please confirm that your images have not won another competition, and that you have read and agree to the Terms & Conditions of the competition*.
*Required to process your entry
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