About UnderwaterPhotography.com

Our Motto: Equipment + Knowledge = Underwater Photography

Our Mission: To help underwater photographers across the globe to fulfill their potential

To achieve our mission statement we take budding underwater photographers from newbie to pro by providing the equipment (in our store) and knowledge how to use it (in our photo courses). We encourage new talent to come through (via our photo contest) with a little bit of guidance (from the pro’s in our forums and Photo Critique team).

We are by far the largest underwater photo site with a community of 30,000+ members (active members not expired, 2007 figures) and as many unique visitors as the leading scuba diving website. It wasn’t always this way...

Benny Sutton started UnderwaterPhotography.com in 1996. This was a time when the Internet was in its infancy; Google didn’t even exist then! The technology was limited and the site was largely static. In the early days the site consisted of Ben’s images and articles.

For years we were a voice in the wilderness. We still remain unsupported and unaffiliated to be the only independant u/w photo voice on the Net.

As technologies (and Ben’s coding skills) improved the site became more interactive. A database was hooked up and visitors were able to upload their images into the prototype photo contest early in 1998. The site grew exponentially, kick-starting the careers of many (now) famous underwater photographers along the way.

Nowadays we have more info on underwater photography, and more underwater photographs, than anywhere else on the Internet (and that probably means anywhere else, full stop). Benny Sutton says... 'My biggest kick is when someone who bought a camera from us posts his (or her) first picture on our photo contest'

We are proud to have ‘broken’ underwater photography on the Internet. We are flattered by the many sites that have copied us. Underwater photography has room for many views (not just ours) and we relish competition – it keeps us all on our toes. We would be far more worried if we were the only one!

Due to the interactive features we pioneered, we can rightly claim to have been built by the thousands of underwater photographers who have uploaded images to the photo contest, chatted in our forums, and contributed with advice, articles, and support. That includes you too - so join in!

Our Moderators

Ben is aided and abetted by a Motley Crew of accomplices known as moderators. Their main role is to police the site and judge the annual contest (amongst other things!).

Moderators: Jam 74, Levent Albas, Victor Amor, Doug Anderson, Steven Anderson, Kristin Anderson, Erika Antoniazzo, Yves Antoniazzo, Jorn Ari, Tom Ashton, Fiona Ayerst, Roland Bach, Manfred Bail, Alp Baranok, Marco Bartolomucci, Marylin Batt, Dave Baxter, Donovan Benbrook, Dave Benz, Rico Besserdich, Steffen Binke, Nick Blake, Dorian Borcherds, Iman Brotoseno, André Bruchez, Melita Bubek, Jozef Butala, Sam Cahir, Jackie Campbell, Michael Canzoniero, Raoul Caprez, Marco Caraceni, Juan Cardona, Margo Cavis, Cenk Ceylanoglu, Jim Chambers, Andy Chan, Tony Cherbas, Johnny Christensen, Mike Clark, Julian Cohen, Paul Colley, Mathew Cook, Mikel Cortes, Miguel Cortes, Amanda Cotton, James Dally, Martin Dalsaso, Jean-Louis Danan, Andrew Dawson, John De Jong, Rob De Vries, Burak Dedeler, Len Deeley, Carlo Depaulis, Marcello Di Francesco, Mona Dienhart, Karl Dietz, Lucie Drlikova, Vittorio Durante, Ray Eccleston, Soren Egeberg, Mike Ellis, Edvin Eng, Marco Faimali (ismar-Cnr), Harald Fauske, Johannes Felten, Gurney Fermin, Sue Ferreira, Melissa Fiene, Paul Flandinette, Alison Forbis, Mathieu Foulquié, Tobias Friedrich, Kjeld Friis, Fabrizio Frixa, Alan Fryer, Ugo Gaggeri, Michael Gallagher, Stuart Ganz, Jim Garland, Armando Gasse, Marchione Giacomo, Afflitti Gianluca, David Gilchrist, Sergiy Glushchenko, Richard Goluch, Cipriano (ripli) Gonzalez, William Goodwin, Mark Gray, Michael Grebler, Shane Gross, Ross Gudgeon, Christine Hamilton, Richard Harris, Helmy Hashim, Derek Haslam, Michael Henke, Debi Henshaw, David Henshaw, Lisa Hinderlider, Tim Ho, Stephen Holinski, Zena Holloway, Chris Holman, Anouk Houben, Jeannette Howard, Christine Huffard, Dave Hunt, Eunjae Im, Caroline Istas, Shawn Jackson, Henry Jager, Ben Joubert, Blaza Jovanovic, Istvan Juhasz, Becky Kagan, Volker Katzung, Grant Kennedy, Ofer Ketter, Anna Kinnersly, Douglas Klug, Dale Kobetich, Levent Konuk, Jagwang Koo, Charly Kotnik, Girts Kravalis, Steve Kuo, Andreas Kutsch, Petra Kuzev, Allen Lee, Melvin Lee, Andy Lerner, Vladimir Levantovsky, Jovin Lim, Eduardo Lima, Christian Loader, William Loke, Michel Lonfat, Sergio Loppel, Vito Lorusso, Thomas Lueken, Alan Lyall, T M, John M Akar, Adolfo Maciocco, Andrew Macleod, Arun Madisetti, Tony Makin, James Mallard, Aleksandr Marinicev, Ran Marom, Abimael Márquez, Puddu Massimo, Veronika Matějková, Brian Mayes, Kyle Mcburnie, Andrew Mckaskle, Rand Mcmeins, Larry Medenilla, Suzan Meldonian, Ferdinando Meli, Jörg Menge, Cal Mero, Jan Messersmith, Gareth Millson, Todd Mintz, Terry Moore, Jane Morgan, Maria Munn, Penny Murphy, Francisco Nakahara, John Naylor, Patrick Neumann, Paul Ng, Christian Nielsen, Ladislav Nogacek, Ximena Olds, Reidar Opem, Chad Ordelheide, George Ordenes, Rick Ouellette, Pedro Padilla, Paola Pallocci, Boris Pamikov, Marko Perisic, Giuseppe Piccioli, Miro Polensek, Robert Polo, Larry Polster, Umberto Pompilio, Glenn Poulain, Stéphane Primatesta, Norbert Probst, Tom Radio, Henrik Gram Rasmussen, Patrick Reardon, Erich Reboucas, Tobias Reitmayr, John Roach, Luiz Rocha, Alberto Romeo, Larissa Roorda, Brad Ryon, Nicholas Samaras, Javier Sandoval, Sangut Santoso, Dejan Sarman, Barbara Schilling, Christian Schlamann, Frank Schneider, Beate Seiler, Mauro Serafini, Michael Shope, José Augusto Silva, Jonny Simpson-Lee, Christian Skauge, Stew Smith, George Smorse, Jorge Sorial, Libor Spacek, Beverly Speed, Geoff Spiby, David Spiel, Martin Spragg, Ryan Stafford, Horen Stalbe, Susanne Stemmer, David Stephens, Claudio Stoppato, Sarena Straus, Daniel Strub, Heru Suryoko, Benny Sutton, Scott Sutton, Richard Swann, Victor Tabernero, Mick Tait, Alex Tattersall, Jason Decaires Taylor, Aza Taza, Andrey Tazba, Rick Tegeler, Arthur Telle Thiemann, Simon Theuma, Mark Thomas, Rodrigo Thome, Ken Thongpila, Teguh Tirtaputra, Esteban Toré, Juan Torres, Sven Tramaux, Jean-Philippe Trenque, Frankie Tsen, Patrick Tutt, Dray Van Beeck, Bruno Van Saen, Marcel Van Schijndel, Nikki Van Veelen, Allan Vandeford, Alex Varani, Doris Vierkötter, Marco Waagmeester, Allen Walker, Brian Welman, Chris Wildblood, Tom Wilson, Richard Witmer, Andrew Woodburn, Marko Wramén, Charles Wright, Richard Wylie, Andre Yanco, Harry Yang, Tunc Yavuzdogan, Ahmet Yay, Gyula Zombor, Victor Zucker
278 moderators in total

An even more select group of moderators judge the weekly contest... Victor Amor, Kristin Anderson, Yves Antoniazzo, Rico Besserdich, Jackie Campbell, Raoul Caprez, Marco Caraceni, Jim Chambers, Miguel Cortes, Andrew Dawson, John De Jong, Carlo Depaulis, Ray Eccleston, Edvin Eng, Kjeld Friis, Michael Gallagher, Jim Garland, Cipriano (ripli) Gonzalez, Derek Haslam, Christine Huffard, Volker Katzung, Steve Kuo, Petra Kuzev, Sergio Loppel, T M, Arun Madisetti, Rand Mcmeins, Penny Murphy, Christian Nielsen, Marko Perisic, Larissa Roorda, Nicholas Samaras, Stew Smith, Beverly Speed, Benny Sutton, Rick Tegeler, Mark Thomas, Juan Torres, Dray Van Beeck, Allan Vandeford, Chris Wildblood, Tom Wilson, Richard Witmer, Charles Wright, Victor Zucker

The Photo Critique Team Steven Anderson, Roland Bach, Rico Besserdich, Raoul Caprez, Mona Dienhart, Jim Garland, Henry Jager, T M, Andrew Macleod, Daniel Strub, Benny Sutton, Dray Van Beeck

Support us, buy in our store

We are a visual arts website, so have a policy of avoiding distracting advertising. To help us keep ads to a minimum (and maintain us as the sole independant voice) please purchase from our store. We have the best advice, price and service so why not? Plus, we are unique in u/w photo retail in that we give away our online photo course (worth $69) to teach you how to use the gear (minimum purchase required).

A sample of our many (unsolicited) customer testimonials:

I have been very pleased with the Customer Service that Nikki has provided me with regards to my recent order. I was in a crunch and needed a camera within 6 days for a dive trip to Cozumel, Mexico. I sort of waited until the last minute to purchase and wasn't sure that the camera would have been delivered on time. I feel like Nikki went out of her way to get it here and it was delivered today. One does not find this quality of Customer Service these days. Please reward Nikki for her efforts. Rob M

I got everything and it looks good...  I'll be testing in a pool this weekend...  Thanks again for your speedy response, fair prices and awesome customer service! Andy j