Photo contest – for females only

The first-ever female-only underwater photography competition – that’s the claim of the “world’s largest female dive community” Girls That Scuba for its latest online initiative.

The group says its mission is to encourage, educate and introduce more and more women to scuba diving while empowering existing divers, and claims a total of more than 300,000 followers acquired over two years.

It says that female underwater photographers have until now been “somewhat under-represented” in competitions.

“We believe every photo and video has a story and we are not looking for ‘the best’ photo or video; we are looking for the story behind it, the effort it took and the hurdles you jumped through to get the shot.”

The competition has four categories – Beginners, Wide Angle, Macro and Videography – with photographers Adrienne Gittus and Claudia Schmitt judging the winners in each one.

It is open to entries from female photographers only until 13 October, and prizes include a Red Sea liveaboard trip, a camera, an action-cam housing and a £500 dive-gear voucher.

Participants can upload no more than a single entry per category, each one of which has its own page.

Find out more here.