Judging the Through Your Lens photo contest is one of our favorite parts of the year at Scuba Diving — but it’s also one of the most challenging. For the 2017 contest, we sifted through more than 2,500 awesome entries to find the best of the best in underwater photography. We wanted to highlight some of our favorite images that didn’t make the winner’s circle, but that blew us away nonetheless. We think turtles are the best reptiles around, and based on the number of stunning turtle photos entered into our contest, it seems like underwater photographers agree! Here are our eight of our favorite turtles from the 2017 Through Your Lens photo contest.

See the 2017 winners here. The 2018 Through Your Lens photo contest is currently accepting entries. Learn more about the image categories and prizes here.

A green sea turtle was fascinated by his own reflection on the photographer’s dome while shooting on Oahu's North Shore.

This photo of a green turtle on a barrel sponge was captured in Gili Islands, Lombok, Indonesia.

A green turtle looks like it’s flying, illuminated by a sunbeam.

Albert the injured loggerhead turtle is a local celebrity of Coral Bay in Western Australia. He is seemingly always hungry, even for the dome ports of the paparazzi. It's a tough life being famous.

Green turtles will feast for hours on an unsuspecting giant jellyfish, starting on the soft tentacles and working their way up to the soft outer bell of the jellyfish.

Cruising along the dive site New Dropoff in Palau, Micronesia, this turtle wanted to see how the photographer’s dome tasted.

This turtle was swimming against the current and let divers appreciate the mosaic of greens and browns of his shell.

This picture was taken just of the Gili Islands in Indonesia. The green turtle stayed as still as a model waiting for his portrait to be taken.

MORE FROM OUR PHOTO CONTEST

Stunning Jellyfish
Awesome Turtles
Breathtaking Over/Under Shots