Having traveled extensively in Mexico and swam in cenotes (natural deep-water sinkholes), I can tell you firsthand just how incredibly picturesque they are.
The lilies that grow in these Mexican subterranean waterways are incredibly vibrant – but diver and underwater photographer Ysabela Coll doesn't just tell you, she also proves it in this stunning photograph.
Coll took the image while diving in a cenote, and it recently won the Underwater Seascapes category of the Photo Competition for United Nations (UN) World Oceans Day.
A wider part of the UN’s annual World Oceans Day campaign, the competition celebrates photographers that draw attention to oceans and the environmental challenges they face.
"Emerging from the darkness of a Mexican cenote, we entered this underwater garden teeming with colorful water lilies and small fish," said Coll.
"The sudden contrast transformed the scene into a dreamlike world, where light, color and life replaced the silence of the cave."
Coll was diving with a decade-old Nikon D500 in an underwater housing, using a Tokina AT-X 107 DX 10-17mm f/3.5 fisheye lens. She used a 1/160 sec shutter speed at ISO640, along with an f/10 aperture and focal length of 10mm (a 15mm equivalent, on Nikon's former flagship APS-C body).
I love how sharply the entire scene is focused, but also how the wide-angle field of view packs in so many exotically colored lilies.
Alongside her stepfather and equal ocean apasionado, José Alejandro Alvarez, Coll co-founded Álvarez+Coll – a fine art and conservation photography business focusing on the beauty of (and threats to) marine ecosystems around the world.
“Cenotes are vital freshwater reservoirs that sustain biodiversity and surrounding communities, yet pollution and climate change increasingly threaten their fragile balance,” said Coll.
This year's competition winners were announced during the UN World Oceans Day event on June 08 in New York.
You can view the 2026 winners online at the competition website, with four winning photos due to be printed for exhibitions around the world.
You might also like…
Take a look at the best waterproof cameras along with the best underwater housings for cameras and the best underwater drones and ROVs.
