RPS Science Photographer of the Year 2020

AccuPixel co-founder Simon Brown has won the Royal Photographic Society Science Photographer of the Year 2020 award. Simon earned the award for his work on the ortho photo of the wreck of the SS Thistlegorm.

He created the ortho photo in 2017 as part of an ongoing project to survey shipwrecks in Egypt’s Red Sea. It covers 2.16 hectares (5.35 acres) of the wreck and surrounding seabed, including the two locomotives the ship was carrying.

To cover the wreck’s external surfaces, and win The science photographer of the year, he captured just over 15,000 overlapping images. Additionally, we needed 11,000 more frames to photograph the cargo decks, captain’s quarters, and saloon.

2020’s Science Photographer’s award winning ortho photo

The science photographer of the year, Simon Brown, was award winning ortho photo is geo referenced and was originally processed at 10mm per pixel using Agisoft Metashape Professional but since upgrading computer hardware this has now been refined to 2mm per pixel. In fact, the native image file is a whopping 10.9Gb in size but is viewable online thanks to the hosting site Dronelab:

To examine the wreck and its cargo in fine detail, the team extensively used the ortho photo. This research uncovered new and previously unrecorded features.

Additionally, a further five ortho photos were produced – the forecastle room, captains quarters, saloon, upper cargo deck and lower cargo deck. Moreover, we published all of this information in the recently released book Diving the SS Thistlegorm. Also, the book includes previously unpublished research plus over 120 still images shot by award winning photographer Alex Mustard. We are thankful for Simon’s recognition as 2020’s science photographer of the year.

The book is also available from:

• Waterstones
• Blackwells
• Browns Books
• Bookshop.org  
• Hive
• Dived Up

In short, please feel free to follow 2020’s Science photographer of the year, Simon Brown, and AccuPixel on Social Media. Also, we thank you for supporting our endeavors!