Readers are capturing many evocative images of life at sea as they compete to be TradeWind’s Photographer of the Year.

With just a fortnight to go before we reach the deadline for entries to the contest impressive images of life at sea are flowing in.

We are getting entries from shipowners to welders as well as just about every maritime occupation onshore and afloat.

Tom Jacob managing partner of Ernst Jacob in Flensburg got close to the bow of the 160,000-dwt Nell Jacob (built 2003) to send a classic photo of the tanker.

Jacob, who sent an impressive portfolio for a previous competition, took the photos off Cape Town with a Canon EOS-1D Mark III with a 400mm lens.

Billy Duncan lead rigger welder on Sealion’s 7,000-gt construction vessel Toisa Perseus (built 1998) has filed a varied selection of photos showing offshore life taken during work at the Snorre field off Norway. He used an Olympus E620.

A selection of the photos so far entered can be seen on this page.

Ian Legg of Braemar Quincannon in Singapore sends photos of last month’s launch celebrations for Wah Kwong’s 3,500-cbm gas carrier Anne at Yamanishi Zosen. Legg says he is not David Bailey and confesses to have taken the photos with his Nokia E63 phone.

We are continuing to get more entries from the Clarksons team with John Jones sending an impressive portfolio of photos taken around the UK with his Fuji Finepix.

Jo Koeppelmann of Brise Schiffahrts in Hamburg sends a portfolio of ice encrusted vessels at Kemi, Finland and off the Norwegian coast as well as of a Corinth Canal transit and the Schleimuende lighthouse.

From Rio de Janeiro Daniel Carvalho of Gearbulk Maritima sends tobacco coloured sunsets taken from the 48,000-dwt open hatch bulker Cedar Arrow (built 2001).

The impressive image of the rainbow above the hatch covers of Eagle Bulk Shipping’s 50,000-dwt bulker Kestrel I (built 2004) was taken by master Capt Borys Pronko in September with a Sony DSC-H9. The vessel was in the Caribbean in ballast for New Orleans at the time.

Stuart Scott of Rio Tinto in Australia took a photo of the 4,900-teu containership MSC Fabienne (built 2004) juxtaposed with a square rigger at Savannah just a few days ago. The phto was taken with a Nikon D50 with a Tamron 18-200mm zoom lens.

Steve Leonard of Maxum Petroleum in Greenwich, Connecticut also had his eye caught by another Mediterranean Shipping Co containership, this time the 4,250 MSC Kim (built 2008).

The first winner of the TradeWinds photographer of the year contest Egor Ryabchenko of DVB Bank, Rotterdam caught Murmansk Shipping’s nuclear powered icebreaker Yarmal (built 1992) whose twin 171MW reactors make for one of the world’s most powerful vessels. But he also caught a night image of a couple of Dutch tugs tied up.

The previous TradeWinds Maritime Photographer of the Year contests.The TradeWinds' Maritime Photographer of the Year contests in 2007 and 2008 attracted many hundreds of entries and we are hopeful 2009 will be just the same.

Click here to view last year's shortlisted entries

or here to view 2007's shortlisted entries.

We will publish a selection of the best photographs in future editions of the TradeWinds paper and on the www.tradewinds.no website. The winning entry will be selected from a short list by a readers' vote.

The Nikon D90 comes with a 18-105mm zoom lens with the winner also awarded the TradeWinds Maritime Photographer of the Year trophy.

Send your entries to competition@tradewinds.no or either of the postal addresses given below.

Competition rules

  • This is a maritime photography competition so only images relating to the merchant shipping industry are eligible. Images submitted may reflect shipboard life, show vessels or parts of vessels, illustrate maritime operations, news events or otherwise have a clear relationship to our industry while demonstrating the creative and/or technical skills of the photographer.
  • Photographs can be entered as digital images, prints or transparencies and be colour or monochrome. Up to 10 images may be submitted by each contestant.
  • Digital images should be submitted as jpg files of at least 1MB, print entries should be of a minimum size of 125mm x 175mm, while transparencies should be 35mm format or larger. Good quality scans of prints or transparencies are also acceptable.
  • Images should be the original work of the contestant and taken since 1 January 2008. Images should be without embedded text or date stamps. All entries should be accompanied by a caption showing where and when the photograph was taken, the name of the ship if relevant, the camera used and the name of the photographer.
  • Images should not have been digitally created or edited but use of filters, time exposures and other traditional photographic techniques is acceptable.
  • A contestant's occupation should be in the shipping or related maritime industries. Those eligible include seafarers, shipowners, shipmanagers, shipbrokers, marine surveyors and inspectors, classification and marine administration officials, port employees, search and rescue and coastguard officers, ship finance, marine insurance and shipping law professionals, as well as students on a course leading to a shipping industry career. The competition is not open to ship enthusiasts, professional photographers or naval personnel, other than those involved in merchant search and rescue or other services relating to merchant shipping. Employees of TradeWinds and related companies are also not eligible.
  • The winning contestant will receive a Nikon D90 digital SLR or equivalent camera and the TradeWinds Maritime Photographer of the Year trophy. The winning image and the name of the successful contestant will be published by TradeWinds soon after the closing date.
  • Copyright remains with the photographer but TradeWinds may publish submitted images in the course of this or future photographic competitions.
  • TradeWinds reserves the right to crop images for the purposes of publication.
  • Digital images should be e-mailed to competition@tradewinds.no with the attached images clearly captioned along with details of the contestant. Prints or slides can be mailed to TradeWinds Photo Competition, Christian Krohgs gate 16, PO Box 1182 Sentrum, N-0107 Oslo, Norway, or TradeWinds Photo Competition, International Press Centre, 76 Shoe Lane, London EC4A 3JB, England.
  • The closing date for entries for the competition is noon GMT on Wednesday 2 December. A short list of the best entries will be selected by the editor of TradeWinds with the final winner chosen through a readers' vote. Voting closes noon GMT Wednesday 16 December with the winner to be announced shortly afterwards.
  • In all matters relating to this competition, the decision of the editor of TradeWinds is final. TradeWinds will do its best to return submitted images if requested but is under no obligation for any lost or damaged.

About the prize:



The feature packed 12.3 megapixel Nikon D90 digital SLR comes with an 18mm-105mm zoom lens and should help the winner take even better photographs.

The successful contestant may, however, choose another digital or film camera or item of photographic equipment of equivalent value.