Alex Mustard

My little green friend. Like many photographers I have a love-hate relationship with Shaun the sheep slugs. These little sap-sucking herbivores make my eyes spin with their total cuteness, and my head spin when it comes to photographing them. They are much, much smaller than people expect, about 2-3mm long (1/16 inch). Once you get the photos on the computer you are in love over again. Their tiny bodies glow in the light and you can zoom in and enjoy all the details of this amazing looking mollusc. @lembehresort #maythefourthbewithyou

Say aaah. Striped mackerel are filter feeders opening their cavernous mouths as they swim and sieving zooplankton from the water with their gill rakers acting like a net. #bigmouth #uwphotography #nikond5 #underwaterphotography #marinelife #tropicalfish #fish #openwide #nauticam #redsea #coralreef

Delighted to part of a fantastic celebration of jaw dropping underwater photography at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year @nhm_wpy #WPY57 - congratulations to @laurentballesta especially - and all the other awarded photographers.

Bump! An oceanic whitetip shark closes its nictitating membrane as it comes in to test my metal and glass of my camera! Oceanics are very confident sharks and will come in and check out anything they find in their open ocean domain. Taken with Sony A1 and 28-60mm lens (at 28mm) with Nauticam FCP-1 water corrected lens. Nauticam housing. Backscatter HF-1 strobes.

This R&B anemonefish was swimming around with an anemone tentacle in its mouth. Has anyone else seen this behaviour? Can anyone explain it? Thanks for any ideas.

A sea slug (Nembrotha cristata) feeding on tunicates. I used the EMWL lens to take this shot, giving a tunicate’s ’eye’ view of this carnivore feasting! This nudi concentrates noxious chemicals from the tunicates and concentrates them in the green lumps on its body. Taken with Sony A1 + Tamron 90mm + Nauticam EMWL-160. Nauticam housing. Marelux S strobes. 1/200th @ f/16, ISO 500.

Are you a water lover too? Currently loving the bliss of diving in the Philippines. 🇵🇭

En route to Anilao for lots of night time diving. This larval flounder is from Grand Cayman workshop in January, when we did blackwater dives with local experts @donfostersdive. Looking forward to more of these beasties with Bartick and my workshop group in the coming days. Shot with Sony A1 and Nauticam housing. 90mm lens and Nauticam MFO-1. Backscatter HF-1 strobes.

📷 Join Alex Mustard & Nicolas Remy for a talk on photo competitions! 📷 💡 The two @maresjustaddwater ambassadors will be discussing their favorite shots from UPY 2025, DPG Masters 2024 & Ocean Art 2024 🔍 Sharing behind-the-scenes insights into the judging process! 🔹 Just like they did in February 2024, Alex and Nicolas will sit down to discuss their favorite images from the winners of three major contests: 🏆 UPY 2025 🏆 DPG Masters 2024 🏆 Ocean Art 2024 🔎 Before diving into the winning shots, they’ll give you an inside look at the judging process for UPY 2025 & DPG Masters 2024, offering a behind-the-scenes perspective on how the top images were selected. The event will conclude with a live Q&A with participants. 🎤 MEET OUR SPEAKERS 🎤 👨‍🏫 Dr. Alex Mustard (UK) 📸 40 years of underwater photography experience 🏆 Chair of the jury for UPY since 2015, and jury in numerous photo contests 🌍 Internationally published photographer, winning international awards since his teens 📖 His latest book: 52 Assignments: Underwater Photography 👨‍🏫 Nicolas Remy (Australia) 📸 Founder of The Underwater Club 🏆 Chair of the jury for DPG Masters 2024 🌍 Award-winning photographer & photojournalist 📅 WHEN IS THE EVENT? 🌎 Global times listed below: 🕐 March 13th: 1pm PDT / 3pm CDT / 4pm EDT / 8pm GMT 🕐 March 14th: 7am AEDT, 9am NZDT 📌 Can’t make it live? No worries! Tickets give you re-play access till March 17th. 🎟 HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT? 🎫 Tickets: AU$49 (Approx. US$32 / EUR 30 / GBP 26) 🔗 Link in Bio 📽️ Includes 3-day access to the recording after the event. 🔥 SPECIAL OFFER 🔥 🚀 Members of The Underwater Club get FREE access to the webinar AND can watch all our webinar recordings for as long as their membership is active! 💡 For the same price as a webinar ticket, you can become a Club Member and get: ✅ Access to this webinar & 20+ past webinars ✅ Self-paced photography courses ✅ Exclusive Q&A calls and Support forums ✅ 30-day membership (renews monthly, cancel anytime) 📸 Join now & get more underwater photography for your money!

A blur of memories from The Underwater Photographer of the Year awards evening in London. #UPY2025

Carry-crabs have modified, elongated rear legs for holding spiky sea urchins for their protection. This one was carrying an upside-down jellyfish, instead, which I thought looked both stylish and effective! Lembata Island, Indonesia.

I normally avoid the melee of where the stingrays are offered a snack on Grand Cayman’s sandbar. Taking myself off to a quiet spot to make more natural images. But this was Sofia’s final visit to the stingrays before leaving the island and she was in her own world enjoying time with the rays swirling around her. I thought it would make a nice video. On my workshops we always try and get to the sandbar early in the morning and with no other boats we get plenty of rays without having to offer food. But once other boats put food in, we have to too. When it is busy, it is not my favourite place, although I do admit it does a great job in winning friends for the ocean. I love it best when it is just me, the rays and the beautiful shallow water. Which I guess is what I like about this clip.