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There are lots of eels out there. They are pretty easy to spot. Think “snakes with gills”.

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This is pretty simple. Any photo taken on a wreck with a wide angle lens will qualify. Ancillary subjects such are divers, angelfish, morays, schools of fish, etc. are encouraged.

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Echinoderms: Ah yes, another opportunity to learn something useful. Echinoderms don’t always have 5 legs and not everything that looks like a starfish is a starfish. Echinoderms do have 5-part symmetry but you’ve all seen starfish with less and more arms. The body, when dissected, will
always show the basic 5 sections. Extreme examples here are crinoids, crown-of-thorns, basketstars (lots more than 5 arms) and cushionstars that don’t seem to have any arms. Same can be said for urchins and seacucumbers. They don’t look like starfish but they sure are echinoderms. Warm up your critter-ID books and learn something useful.

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Cephalopods
(octopi, squid, cuttlefish)

Cephalopods are a sub-group of the phylum molusca (i.e., moluscs). However, we’re not looking for snails or clams this month. Limit your entries to our friends: squid, cuttlefish, octopi, and nautilus (if you have any).

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We’re talking beaucoup Pisces this month. Lots a fish… not critters, just fish. What is a school? Good question. Let’s see if we can take a stab at it. How about 12 or more of the same fish.

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Syngnathidae
(pipefish & seahorses)

These bad boys are usually pretty easy to identify but not always easy to find. We all have shots of them so dig them out and send them in. If you aren’t sure if it qualifies… yep, look it up or give us a shout.

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Silhouettes are interesting in that the outlines and shape of the subject are
what is important. A good silhouette should have almost no detail observable in the primary subject. We’re talking form and composition this month so see what you can come up with. If you don’t have good
examples, you’ve got plenty of time to go try shooting some. It’ll be good for you.

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Sharks & Rays
(class: chondrichthyes)

Not that you have to read all of this but it might be interesting:
Chondrichthyes or cartilaginous fishes are jawed fish with paired fins, paired nares, scales, two-chambered hearts, and skeletons made of cartilage rather than bone. The class is divided into two subclasses: Elasmobranchii (sharks, rays and skates) and Holocephali (chimaeras, sometimes called ghost sharks, which are sometimes separated into their own class).

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This seems simple but it’s not always easy to know when you have a juvenile of a species. I’m really not sure I can offer you any good advice other than look it up or ask someone that probably knows. Anything that’s not a mature adult is an operational definition. In reality, we’re probably looking for fish or critters that are obviously still maturing. Good examples
might be juvenile anglefish that have distinct markings or juvenile spotted
drums that still need a while to grow into their fins. You get the picture (I hope).

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Things only a mother could love (and maybe not even then). Ugly is in the eye of the beholder so I suppose that it’s your call. The judges might disagree, of course.

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Another chance to learn something useful. This topic is a sub-set of wide angle. The difference is that the primary subject(s) need to be very close to the lens. A typical CF/WA shot will have something in focus in the foreground and a wide angle view of the reef (or whatever) in the background. The nice thing about wide angle lenses is their extreme depth of field that allows you to focus close and still have the background in decent focus, too. You should be using a wide angle lens or a zoom set for wide angle to ualify.

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Open category for Novice, Intermediate, & Advanced.  Creative category is for all entrants and "anything goes" (3 images maximum per category). Any image taken underwater is allowed in each of the first 3 categories. This includes images that have placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, in this year’s monthly contests. Please note that 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place winners in Best of
HUPS are not eligible for any HUPS contest in following years. Anyone is allowed to enter in the Creative category. It is basically a free ride for your creative juices. Photoshop away (or any other digital manipulation program). Cut-and-paste parts of one image into another, distort, change color or texture, repeat, invert, rotate, etc. The only requirements are that all elements of the image must have been photographed or created by the entrant and the primary focus
should be related to underwater photography. Non-underwater elements are allowed in the images for humor or creative impact as long as you took the photo.