First Ilocos Sur Underwater Photoshoot Competition 2019

Twenty passionate Filipino Underwater Photographers trooped to Ilocos Sur for a weekend of fun, laughs and some friendly competition. Here are the results and all submitted entries from participants.

On Apr 25-26, 2019, Twenty of the most passionate photographers from around the Philippines attended the wonderful marine awareness effort by the local Tourism group of locos Sur which awarded  over P220,000 worth of allowances and cash prizes to all the participants who took part in this historic photo contest extravaganza. 

Ilocos Sur holds many beautiful surprises beneath it's reefs

The tourney made mandatory for participants to dive Four of Ilocos Sur's top dive sites for a short period of just two days, where each participant was required to find their own subjects (juxtaposed shooting) without the help of a dive guide which was quite challenging and definitely level 99 in terms of difficulty of attaining the final prizes. 

To identify the winners, the Ilocos Sur local government tapped the services of the top underwater photographers in the country, mainly Scott Gutsy Tuason, Aidrien Uichico and Ram Yoro to select images which best shares the beauty of Ilocos Sur underwater. 

Each participant was required to submit Four of their best photos, where Wide Angle images were most welcome and of course macro images topped the submissions and all 80 entries went for a detailed review from the judges. Judging was based on the Technical, Composition, Lighting, Difficulty of taking the shot and narrative aspect of the photos submitted. Every juror was asked to select their own Four favourites and the Final 16 went under very detailed discussions (an almost two hour deliberation) with the local government present during the selection process. 

Adrien Uichico explores Cabugao's unli caverns

Only Four awards were up for grabs where The First place winner of the Wide Angle category wins P30,000 and Second receives P20,000, same goes for the Macro category where The Winner takes home P30,000 and  second place brings home P20,000

For the Wide Angle category, Carlo Valenzuela bagged first place for his wonderfully lit and soulful image of Jose Rizal which can be found 16 meters deep in Cabugao, Ilocos Sur while Paul Tuazon takes home second for his Coral Forest inspired submission which was shot at 12 meters deep in Vigan reef, Ilocos Sur. 

Carlo Valenzuela, First Place, Wide Angle Category

Paul Tuazon bags second in the Wide Angle Category

For the Macro category it was a tight race but in the end, Paolo Yuchingtat takes home top honours for his Goby on whip coral submission while the Second Place award was split in a deadlock between again Paul Tuazon for his bokehlicios Porcelain crab and Mark Genuino for his tiny Nudi which was a great find. 

Paolo bags First place in the Macro category for his Goby on whip coral submission

Mark splits second place with Paul Tuazon, both happily take home P10,000 each

Paul Tuazon places in both the Wide Angle and Macro category

Finally, there was a surprise (pahabol) Governors Choice award announced only that night and Corrine Allas bags the special award and brings home P20,000 for her lovely pair of Fire Darts

Again, another surprise award given after the competition for best Smile selfie category which goes to Tofer and team Scuba Studio. The team brings home an undisclosed substantial cash prize

The night ended with Pacifica and Scuba Studio sponsoring the raffle portion of event and everyone got to bring home goodies plus event participant shirts and happy memories. 

Here are the rest of the 60 photos (of 80) submitted by all the contestants who passionately participated in the historic event. 

submission by 6ZAUO

submission by APKIJ

submission by BM09A

submission by C5SJ6

submission by CJ27V

submissions by EQMBL

submissions by EVK84

submissions by F7COP

submissions by FQHEL

submissions by K6C74

submissions by OBU6A

submissions by QBP19

submissions by QMC54 

submissions by UZTLT

submissions by WOGDE

To end this post, here is Ram Yoro's share about the event, cheers everyone :) was a fun weekend

Do follow Adrien Uichico, Scott Gutsy Tuason and Ram Yoro as they will post their photos of their macrolicious reef and black water dives from Ilocos Sur soon plus thanks to Conz Paz and Ian Verzosa for working tirelessly for two months making this event possible for everyone.

Want to dive Ilocos Sur.. Here is their number..