National Geographic Photo Contest Winner

Bill Goodwin and his wife, Donna, reside in Birmingham, Alabama, and have been frequent scuba diving visitors to Bonaire and the island’s reefs since 2004. Both enjoy underwater photography. Bill’s shot of a peppermint shrimp in a sponge, taken at Margate Bay, was entered into a photographic competition sponsored by National Geographic magazine, where it won top prize.

There were 208,000 entries from 28 countries in 20 different language editions of the magazine. Bill placed first place in the Nature category (one of three categories: People; Places; and Nature) in the English language National Geographic contest, but his image then went on to win first place in the worldwide competition.

Many times photographers take multiple images of a subject. In the case of the winning photo, Bill took only the one shot of the shrimp. His camera was a Sony DSC WX-1 set on auto. The camera took the image at f/2.4, ISO 160, with a shutter speed of 1/100. Bill didn’t use a filter, but held his finger over the internal strobe to avoid double flashing. He also used an Underwater Kinetics Light Cannon (HID) pointed at the outside the sponge.

The competition was judged by noted photographers Paul Humann, Stephen Frink, and a staff photographer from National Geographic. Bill won second place in the Reefs at Risk category, also with a shot taken from Bonaire; a first place prize in Macro with a Bonaire image; a first in the Reef Inhabitants category, again with an image from Bonaire; and the Best in Show prize with a photo from Cayman Brac.
The Best in Show photo, along with a story about the grouper in the picture, was featured in the Cayman newspapers the week before a vote in the parliament on banning spearfishing for grouper in island waters. The ban was enacted in part as a result of that image and story.

Bill and Donna take time away from their physical therapy clinic to give back to Bonaire. They organized a fundraiser with a local dive shop in Birmingham to help fund the water quality monitor program executed by STINAPA, the island’s National Parks Foundation. They are currently working with STINAPA to produce an Underwater Image Bank to help teach many of the local children about the treasures that inhabit the waters around Bonaire. The image bank will be utilized as a visual aid to students and teachers in biology, information sciences, tourism industry studies, art and more.

To view all winning entries, visit the National Geographic website.