Welcome to the third edition of the Featured Photographer monthly post. Please meet Lynn Wu, a young Taiwanese female underwater photographer who has won many awards in international photography competitions. Lynn Wu and her husband, Jim Chen, are both award winning photographers. On this post, I will focus on Lynn Wu’s photography works. Ladies first 😉

Sheep Eats Grass by Lynn Wu

The Rose and Thorn by Lynn Wu

Yellow Pygmy Goby

In 2014 alone, Lynn Wu won five awards in five underwater photography contests and her photography has been honorably mentioned in four other competitions. In early year 2015, her photo entitled “Hitchhiker” was commended by the Jury of 2015 Underwater Photographer of the Year in London. Recently, her famous award winning photo in year 2014 entitled “Sheep Eat Grass”, is republished by German’s magazine, Hörzu Wissen.

Lynn Wu is a talented underwater photographer and admired by many scuba divers, including myself.

You will find how dedicated she is as a scuba diver and photographer. Her photography subject is mostly on unusual and unique small critters that usually are not easily spotted. Following is my interview with Lynn Wu.

Lynn Wu as a Scuba Diver

How long have you been diving? How many logged dives? (Editorial note: scuba divers were recommended to record/log their dives in a special diving diary called Dive Log Book. This way, we could measure how experience the scuba diver and as well to have a record of marine species being seen in specific area)
Now it has been nine years. I have 652 logged dives.

Why do you scuba dive?
It started from our holiday trip to Palau in 2006, I realized that I have a passion for the underwater world. It was love at first sight since I got certified as an open water diver on the following year in 2007. In year 2008, I started underwater photography.

Bullfighting by Lynn Wu

Where is your most favorite diving place?
My favorite diving place is Tulamben, Bali (Indonesia) because it has abundance diversity of marine species.

Where is your dream diving destination(s)?
I have been dreaming to dive in South Africa and Galapagos. I always want to see the whales, the sharks, and of course other marine organism that are unique to these countries.

Lynn Wu as Underwater Photographer

What is your underwater camera gear?
My first camera for underwater photography was Sony DSC-W7. Then I upgrade to Olympus E-PL5, with 60mm macro lens. I also use strobe INON Z240 and external lens SubSee +10.

Which mode do you use in your camera for scuba diving?
M mode (Manual setting)

I notice that your subject photography are always small critters and considered as macro photography. Why do you choose macro photography?
I like the little creatures, and I would like to let everyone know the macro world. I live in the Northern Taiwan, where its ocean also has numerous macro creatures.

The Winning Images

Can you share with us your favorite winning images?

The first is “Sheep Eat Grass”. It won two awards from the Australasia Underwater Photo Competition in 2014. This tiny little sea slug (Costasiella sp.3) looked like a sheep who ate grass. Its size was less than one centimeter – maybe around 4-10mm. It stayed on the algae. The sea slug has a white head with black tentacles. It can be found on green algae with a flattened plate-like leaf in sandy bottom. I used a 60 mm macro lens and it was very difficult to photograph this species. It took me a while to finally get the result. The image was taken at the dive site Puri Jati, Bali (Indonesia).

Sheep Eats Grass by Lynn Wu

The second is “Symbiotic Relationship”. It won the First Award of China Underwater Photo Contest in 2014. The image was taken in dive site Pemuteran, Bali (Indonesia). The photograph shows the symbiotic relationship between a Batfish and a Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides Dimidiatus). The Batfish periodically comes down close to the reef to allow Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse to remove parasites from their gills and skin, whilst the Cleaner Wrasse receives an easy meal.

Symbiotic Relationship by Lynn Wu

The third is an image entitled “Hitchhiker” . It was an Commended Image of Underwater Photographer of the Year, London 2015, for International Macro Photography category. The image was taken in dive site 825K, Northeast Coast (Taiwan). The image shows an Emperor Shrimp and its commensalisms. The Emperor Shrimp could be found on top of several species like Sea Cucumbers and Nudibranch.  This phenomenon often occurred at 825K (dive site in North Coast of Taiwan) during summer (early August through late September). Usually they stay on top of big nudibranch. I used external lens SubSee +10 with manual focus when capturing this image.

Hitchhiker by Lynn Wu

Can’t get enough of Lynn Wu’s Photography?

Yellow Pygmy Goby

Lynn Wu and her husband, Jim  Chen, have their photography works together presented on their website. Jim has amazing photography as well, you will be impressed by this couple’s artistic talents! Their photography website:

 Jim and Lynn Photography – official website

Additionally, you can purchase their stunning images from the following website:

Jim & Lynn Photography at 500 px