UPY 2025

UPY 2019 Compact - Hughly Commended
'Ruby on a milky diamond'
Andrea Michelutti

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the back of an anemone overturned by the current and a Mushroom Shrimp running on it. An idea immediately popped up in my mind: I’m shooting this in High-Key.
Being one of my first dives with my new strobes I had bought on the way to Maluku, it required a certain deal of concentration in order to get the right exposure for the subject, to avoid shadows and to obtain a white background that still retains some details of the anemone.
In a few shots two Mother nature gems merged together on the display of my camera.

Judge's comment: Without doubt it is the high-key negative space which in my opinion makes this image jump out of the frame. Any brighter - the background would have been over exposed! The cropped compositional position is ideal with the minute two eyes looking out of frame towards the top left corner whilst leaving space for the eye of the viewer to enjoy the bottom left light and shade.
Martin Edge