After 11 attempts and 11 times a finalist, underwater photographer Ross Gudgeon has been named Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year.
And he couldn’t be happier.
“Yep, it’s about time,” he said with a large grin on finally seeing his winning image on display at the South Australian Museum.
Ross was named overall winner with his image Fractal Forest (above), captured in the waters of Lembeh Strait, off North Sulawesi, in Indonesia.
t’s a psychedelic inside-out macro view of a cauliflower soft coral, named for its characteristic resemblance to a cauliflower, with numerous small, rounded, bump-like polyps that give it a puffy texture.
Ross achieved the unique perspective using a Nauticam extended macro wide lens (EMWL), an underwater version of the probe or insect eye lens.
“It's different,” Ross said of the image. “It's not what everybody else does.
“That's what I try to do with my photos. I try to take pictures that are from a different perspective or different lighting to what everybody else does.
“When I look at it, I feel like I'm being sucked into it.”
The competition, in its 22nd year and owned and produced by the South Australian Museum, is Australia’s most prestigious nature photographic contest, and this year attracted 1,864 images from 449 photographers in 18 countries.
Entries are accepted covering content from across the ANZANG bioregion – Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea.
Ross is a retired engineer and has been doing underwater photography for the past 40 years.
He was 60 when he first entered the AGNPOTY in 2015, winning the then animal portrait section at his first attempt. He again won the Animal Portrait category in 2019.
Importantly, Ross does his diving with wife Mary, who has also been a finalist several times, including this year with her incredible image of a red pygmy seahorse, again taken in the Lembeh Strait.
Mary was also runner up in the Macro category in 2023.
The Western Australian couple, who admit they’re no longer spring chickens, don’t plan to stop diving and taking pictures any time soon.
“We’re not doing a lot of the stuff we used to, Mary and I,” Ross said. “We don't do cold water diving anymore; we just go to warmer climates, the tropics.
“I just sold my boat recently - we used to go diving locally but to load the boat up and unload the boat, I was shattered by the end of the day.
“Whereas I can go somewhere else, and we pay people, they do all the hard work, and we just enjoy ourselves.
“Once you're in the water it's quite easy, there’s no wear and tear on your bones.”
The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year is on show at the South Australian Museum until February 1 next year.
Adult entry to the exhibition is $12, concession/students $10, children under 12 years of age free.
Please note: entry to South Australian Museum special exhibitions is now cashless. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door by card only.
The exhibition will also go on display at the Australian Museum in Sydney from 25 October 2025 to 15 February 2026.
A call for entries for the 2026 competition will be issued in November.
The full gallery of photographs from this year’s competition can be found here.
