UPY 2025

UPY 2016 Behaviour - Commended
'Torrent'
Susannah H. Snowden-Smith

The silversides usually descend on Cayman once a year; it's an exciting time for us underwater photographers. They fill dark swim-throughs and caves with their reflective, wriggling bodies, and are hunted by larger fish; exciting photo opportunites! I headed to Cheeseburger Reef, where I heard they'd been sighted. Jacks and tarpon were feeding on the little silver fish, chasing them through the dark tunnels. I was making passes through the swim-through, framing and photographing when I decided to try something different. I chose a slow-exposure to show the movement of the silversides, and used my strobes to both reflect off them, and highlight some of the red sealife on the wall above. I positioned myself near the mouth of the tunnel to silhouette the larger fish as they hunted. When a jack chased silversides into the middle of this scene I had my shot.