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Finalist Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Daniel Sly Australia

33°50'24.0"S 151°15'14.4"E

"Each summer, male eastern gobbleguts carry their eggs in their mouths throughout the brooding season," says Sly. "Typically active at night, they remain shy and quick to hide, darting into crevices or kelp at the first sign of disturbance. This portrait was captured during a night dive beneath a busy fishing and ferry wharf in Sydney Harbour. After a long, patient wait, the gobbleguts finally emerged from the shadows. I used a narrow beam of light from above to softly illuminate the fish and its egg clutch helping it stand out from the cluttered background."

BEHIND THE LENS

Ocean Photographer of the Year 2025, DANSLY6

Daniel Sly Australia

ABOUT THE IMAGE

  • 9pm shoot
  • 2m visibility
  • Coastal walk-in
  • f/16, 1/100s, ISO 100

Daniel Sly is an underwater photographer based in Sydney, Australia. Growing up surrounded by ocean and national parks, he developed a love for nature early on, but it wasn’t until 2018 - after earning his SCUBA certification - that he discovered the underwater world. What began with a GoPro soon evolved into a deep passion for capturing marine life along the temperate waters of New South Wales. Daniel’s work highlights the region’s rich biodiversity, aiming to inspire appreciation and protection of these often-overlooked local ecosystems.