By Tim Rock (all photos copyright the owners) Manta Fest 2011 had some amazing entries this year and they weren’t all manta photos despite the name of our Fest. The judges commended beautiful shots of sea turtles, reef scenics, macro like mandarinfish and goby potraits, lots of reef shark shots and some beautiful sunrises and village dance shots. They were shown to all aboard the Mnuw on Saturday Night, September 10, 2011. In the end, it is hard to unseat the Judy Bennet with her great photography and fun attitude about diving. Last year’s overall winner was also this year’s top photog and the creator of this year’s Best of Show with her great Grey Reef Shark portrait taken at Vertigo. But she had plenty of competition and here’s how it shook out: Category – Land, Culture and People Honorable Mention Mark Grantham – Yap Sunrise Audrey Voronin – Coconut Girl Third Place Mark Grantham – Village Weavers Second Place Karen Axelrod – Mnuw Sunrise First Place Judy Bennett – Stick Dance Girl Category – Macro Honorable Mention Judy Bennett – Yellow Goby & Shrimp Audrey Voronin – Mandarinfish Dance Third Place Mike Martini – Clownfish in Anemone Second Place Judy Bennett – Wire Coral Shrimp First Place Judy Bennett – Spotted Coral Crab Reef Scenics Honorable Mention Shirley DeMan – Open Water Turtle Shirley DeMan – Giant Puffer Audrey Voronin – Hawksbill Third Place Judy Bennett – Finger Corals & Boat Second Place Judy Bennett – Anthias and Crinoids First Place Audrey Voronin – Reef Wave Mantas and/or Sharks Honorable Mention Daniel Flormann – Turning Shark Third Place Mike Martini – Manta Above! Second Place Daniel Flormann – Shark Pair Tons of prizes including a week stay at Manta Ray for the First place winners. Second Place winners got Tim Rock’s books on either Yap or Micronesia. Third Place and Honorable Mention got a lot of various Manta Ray Bay and Yap Divers prizes. And Judy’s Grand Prize was a Mares Icon HD net ready Dive Computer. This year’s judges were Tim Rock of Double Blue Images/Lonely Planet Author, Marty Snyderman of Marty Snyderman Productions, Frank Schneider of Tauchen Magazine and Ray Bullion Dive Computer Specialist of Los Angeles. Manta Fest for 2012 will be from August 26th through September 9th, 2012. We hope to see you in YAP!!!