The first Lembeh vs Gulen Critter shootout took place from 21 to 27 May 2016. The goal was for two teams, one at the Gulen Dive Resort, Norway and other at Lembeh Resort, Indonesia to go head-to-head and to compete with each other in real time. The contest had three categories: Nudibranchs, invertebrates and fish and each team was allowed one practice day before spending a day shooting their entries for the contest. Barring the time difference, the two teams effectively shot simultaneously. The images were then voted upon in a public vote to determine the winners.

Wetpixel covered the event in full from both Gulen and Lembeh. Team Gulen won the nudibranch round, while team Lembeh won both the invertebrate and fish categories and were the overall winners. Perhaps unexpectedly, what has come out of this contest is a gallery of simply superb and engaging macro images. While we have selected the top three (and tied) images from each resort and category for this Full Frame feature, there is a gallery of all the contest’s images available. It is simply stunning too and we would strongly suggest that you check it out.

Wetpixel and the underwater imaging world eagerly await the rematch!