Exmouth resident Aimee Jan awarded Ocean photographer of the year at the Ocean Photography Awards

A lifelong love of the ocean and marine animals has been rewarded when an Exmouth photographer's picture of a green turtle surrounded by glass fish in the Ningaloo Reef took out the top prize in an international photography competition.

Aimee Jan was announced as the winner of the Ocean Photography Awards top category, the Ocean photographer of the year last week.

Ms Jan was one of two Ningaloo based photographers recognised in the awards with Alex Kydd coming third in the collective portfolio category.

Mr Kydd’s works were based around Australia and Indonesia and were usually captured while free-diving.

Ms Jan said she was shocked to win the prize but felt the photo was special.

“The thing that makes it special is the way the turtle sort of looking at the camera,” she said.

“I think they would have been looking for that sort of connection between the marine life, so that when you look at the photo you can feel some sort of connection.”

Ms Jan said she was nominated for the awards by a colleague but was shocked to be named a finalist.

“I got an email saying I was a finalist and I was honestly just stoked to even be a finalist, and then when they emailed me to say that I'd won I actually forwarded it to my partner and asked him if I was going crazy or if I was reading it correctly,” she said.

“I thought I was being pranked.”

The thing that makes me want to keep doing photography and that makes me love photography is capturing these special moments or interactions with animals.

Ms Jan said she studied film at school and got into underwater photography when she moved to Exmouth 11 years ago.

A lifelong love of the ocean and marine creatures, Ms Jan said her journey to underwater photography was a natural progression.

“I've always been super fascinated with that and then I worked as a guide and always had a camera. It just naturally progressed into me doing photography,” she said.

“The thing that makes me want to keep doing photography and that makes me love photography is capturing these special moments or interactions with animals.

“Also being able to share that work with people that might not have access or might not care about the ocean, it might make them care about it a little bit.”