UPY 2025

UPY  Behaviour - Winner
'All You Need Is Love'
Pekka Tuuri

All you need is love! This love pond is in my backyard, a 20 minute drive from home. And it has rewarded me plentifully over the past ten years. It is full of love in late April. The common frogs come first, then toads and finally newts. I spent four days and four night time sessions in it in 2021. I wore a drysuit with argon, lots of undergarments and a heated vest to survive in the five degree water. I floated and stayed put among the frogs and quite soon they accepted me and my camera as a part of the scenery. The frogs climb on top of my camera, make grunting sounds in my ears and squeeze between my face and the backplate of the camera. The active spawning time lasts about two days and nights. What an experience with lots of photo ops!

Judge's comment: This image truly made me laugh, when I saw it first time. What an iconic moment and excellent reaction by the remarkable Pekka Tuuri. He is truly on of the underwater photographers in the world who always came up with different ideas and outstanding, different images from places just around his corner in Finland. Excellent composition and light, very well done. - Tobias Friedrich