UPY 2025

UPY 2018 Macro - Highly Commended
'Pretty lady'
TianHong Wang

This is a Japanese pygmy seahorse, a lot of creatures in order to protect themselves, will stay in their own and similar color environment, so the adjacent color in the natural color will be easier to find. When I took this shoot, I used a large aperture and tried a variety of different combinations of lighting methods to blur the background to highlight the subject, but at the same time using the adjacent colors in the background, and then vivid contrast in harmony. The purpose is to make it a more unified background and subject, with a pink background to set off the subject, can make it a lovely character, give a better impression.

Judge's comment: Pastel soft complementary colours set this pygmy seahorse apart from many others. I really like the shape and angle in which it is positioned. From a compositional point of view the pygmy eye dominates the frame. I also like the slight tilt of the head which lines up the eye looking towards the bottom left corner. Follow the contours of the pygmy from the end of it's tail to the eye and notice all the twits and turns.
Martin Edge