COMPETITION | EVENT COVERAGE 2025 | BONAIRE - The Digital Shootout - A renowned annual event for underwater photography and videography enthusiasts.

EVENT COVERAGE 2025 | BONAIRE

OUR FRIENDLY COMPETITION

While the Shootout is a learning event with emphasis on improving underwater shooting and editing techniques, the event organizers, Backscatter Underwater Video & Photo and Under Exposures, manage to gather some very cool prizes to give away in the friendly competition. Regardless of whether or not your images won a prize, congratulations to all of this year’s participants for your hard work and improvement shown during the Shootout! Each of you created captivating, artistic ocean images to be proud of, and you are all winners!

JIM WATT AWARD

Jim Watt was more than a friend to the Shootout. He was a living example of our mission statement. Jim was one of the first professional underwater photographers to adopt digital photography and was thrilled to share all his shooting secrets with first time shooters or fellow professional photographers. His passion and skill in creating new images was infectious and inspired hundreds of Digital Shootout guests over the years. Our Best of Show image is honored with the Jim Watt Award of excellence.

Prize for JIM WATT AWARD

11 Night Trip for 1 to Komodo on the Pindito – $6,000

WINNERS – WIDE ANGLE TRADITIONAL

1st Place – Wide Angle Traditional – Dave Morton

2nd Place – Wide Angle Traditional – Suzanne Frey

3rd Place – Wide Angle Traditional – Jill Crosby

HM1 – Wide Angle Traditional – Steven Lasko

Prizes for WIDE ANGLE TRADITIONAL

Samambaia Liveaboard — 11 night trip for 1 to Komodo or Alor
$6,000

7 nights at Puerto Galera or Dumaguete
$3,600

WINNERS – WIDE ANGLE UNRESTRICTED

1st Place – Wide Angle Unrestricted – Melanie Heller

2nd Place – Wide Angle Unrestricted – Dave Morton

3rd Place – Wide Angle Unrestricted – Hugh Sakols

HM1 – Wide Angle Unrestricted – Chris Chontow

HM2 – Wide Angle Unrestricted – Tracy Donaldson

Prizes for WIDE ANGLE UNRESTRICTED

Siladen Resort & Spa — 4 nights stay at each resort, 3 dives a day
$3,000

Go Ask Erin - Live & On Demand — Full Collection of Go Ask Erin
On Demand
$850

WINNERS – MACRO TRADITIONAL

1st Place – Macro Traditional – Steven Lasko

2nd Place – Macro Traditional – Suzanne Frey

3rd Place – Macro Traditional – Dawn Gillespie

Prizes for Macro TRADITIONAL

Bilikiki Liveaboard — 10 Night Trip for 1
$6,400

Backscatter Underwater Video & Photo — MF2 Triple Remote
$2,500

Avalon Cuban Diving Centers — $1,500 Voucher for Cuba Trip

WINNERS – MACRO UNRESTRICTED

1st Place – Macro Unrestricted – Mike Jennings

2nd Place – Macro Unrestricted – Steven Lasko

3rd Place – Macro Unrestricted – Craig Johnson

HM1 – Macro Unrestricted – Jocelyn Sears

Prizes for Macro Unrestricted

Alum Batu — 7 Nights All in Package
$2,400

Ultralight Camera Solutions — $300 Gift Certificate

WINNERS – COMPACT

Prizes for COMPACT

OM System — OM-D E-M10 IV w/14-42 EZ Lens & Backscatter Octo Housing
$1,800

WINNERS – FLUORO

Prizes for FLUORO

Crystal Blue Resort — 7 Nights, 18 Dive Package
$2,500

WINNERS – CINEMATIC SHORT STORY

2 Minutes or Less

1st Place – Paul McGrath

2nd Place – Neil Judd

3rd Place – Terrie Gray

HM1 – Melanie Heller

HM2 – Dave Morton

HM3 – Peter Lu

Prizes for CINEMATIC SHORT STORY

Lembeh Resort — 8 nights, 22 boat dives
$5,100

WINNERS – SOCIAL MEDIA STORY

20 Seconds or Less

1st Place – Paul McGrath

2nd Place – John Obremski

3rd Place – Melanie Heller

HM1 – Terrie Gray

Prizes for SOCIAL MEDIA STORY

Clearly Cayman — 7 Nights, 17 Dive Package
$3,000

Please enjoy the underwater views from behind the lenses of this year’s participants in the other submitted videos and all-submitted images slideshow. A very special THANK YOU to all of our prize sponsors for your generosity and support of The Digital Shootout – we couldn’t do it without you!

IMAGES – ALL ENTRIES

Here are all of the images that were submitted for the friendly competition of this year’s Digital Shootout.

JOIN US AT THE 2026 DIGITAL SHOOTOUT IN LITTLE CAYMAN!

Hope to see you at next year’s Shootout at Little Cayman Beach Resort!

The Digital Shootout has always had a Share-the-Wealth policy for the incredible prizes awarded. Those whose talent and good fortune allowed them to win, place or show in more than one category will certainly be recognized for their achievements; however, only the one favorite prize can be taken home, with the others going into the all-entries raffle. Winners that were ambitious enough to compete in both photo and video can keep their favorite prize selected from both the photo and video contest.

This year, the Digital Shootout added another category to the video portion of the contest, Social Media Quick Story. More videos than ever were submitted into this year’s contest, making the judges job even more difficult than usual. The judging panel – Berkley White, Hergen Spalink, Todd Winner, Erin Quigley, Joel Penner, Jen Penner, Cristian Dimitrius and Dan Baldocchi – used the criteria “Would I share this video with my friends?” for the social media quick story (20 second duration or less) and the cinematic short story (2 minute duration or less). For still images, “Would I hang this photo on my wall?” was the guideline for judging hundreds of images over 5 categories.