UPY 2025

UPY  Portrait - Highly Commended
'Hypno-Campus'
Nur Tucker

I had this idea on my mind to create a very strong visual impact with a strong eye contact, but I also wanted to employ a new technique in underwater photography for the first time. None of the techniques I used before such as creating bokeh in the back-ground using manual lenses, or working with special backgrounds satisfied me. I then thought about light painting underwater. It took a long time to execute it as electricity and water don’t go well together. I experimented with different materials, wires, cables, colours. I spent many evenings experimenting at shallow depths totally in the dark with the housing on a tripod trying to create the dramatic lighting effect I was searching for. For this image I employed the double exposure technique: I took various portrait shots of a thorny sea horse and then I combined the light painting shot in camera.

Judge's comment: A powerful portrait, given a really fresh twist with a double exposure. When judging we’d guessed, incorrectly, that the light painting had been done out of the water as part of this double exposure. Kudos indeed to complete this beneath the surface, too.
- Alex Mustard