By Tim Rock
(all photos copyright the owners)

Manta Fest 2011 had some amazing entries this year and they weren’t all manta photos despite the name of our Fest. The judges commended beautiful shots of sea turtles, reef scenics, macro like mandarinfish and goby potraits, lots of reef shark shots and some beautiful sunrises and village dance shots. They were shown to all aboard the Mnuw on Saturday Night, September 10, 2011.

In the end, it is hard to unseat the Judy Bennet with her great photography and fun attitude about diving. Last year’s overall winner was also this year’s top photog and the creator of this year’s Best of Show with her great Grey Reef Shark portrait taken at Vertigo.

Judy Bennett - Shark Face! - Best of Show for Manta Fest 2011

But she had plenty of competition and here’s how it shook out:

Category – Land, Culture and People

Honorable Mention

Mark Grantham – Yap Sunrise
Audrey Voronin – Coconut Girl

Third Place

Mark Grantham – Village Weavers

Second Place

Karen Axelrod – Mnuw Sunrise

First Place

Judy Bennett – Stick Dance Girl

First Place Judy Bennett - Stick Dance Girl

Category – Macro

Honorable Mention

Judy Bennett – Yellow Goby & Shrimp
Audrey Voronin – Mandarinfish Dance

Third Place

Mike Martini – Clownfish in Anemone

Second Place

Judy Bennett – Wire Coral Shrimp

First Place

Judy Bennett – Spotted Coral Crab

First Place Judy Bennett - Spotted Coral Crab

Reef Scenics

Honorable Mention

Shirley DeMan – Open Water Turtle
Shirley DeMan – Giant Puffer
Audrey Voronin – Hawksbill

Third Place

Judy Bennett – Finger Corals & Boat

Second Place

Judy Bennett – Anthias and Crinoids

First Place

Audrey Voronin – Reef Wave

First Place - Audrey Voronin - Reef Wave

Mantas and/or Sharks

Honorable Mention

Daniel Flormann – Turning Shark

Third Place

Mike Martini – Manta Above!

Second Place

Daniel Flormann – Shark Pair

First Place - Daniel Flormann - Manta Movement

Tons of prizes including a week stay at Manta Ray for the First place winners.
Second Place winners got Tim Rock’s books on either Yap or Micronesia.
Third Place and Honorable Mention got a lot of various Manta Ray Bay and Yap Divers prizes.

And Judy’s Grand Prize was a Mares Icon HD net ready Dive Computer.

This year’s judges were Tim Rock of Double Blue Images/Lonely Planet Author, Marty Snyderman of Marty Snyderman Productions, Frank Schneider of Tauchen Magazine and Ray Bullion Dive Computer Specialist of Los Angeles.

Manta Fest for 2012 will be from August 26th through September 9th, 2012. We hope to see you in YAP!!!