UPY 2025

UPY  British Waters Compact - Winner
'Catshark in Bootlace'
Jon Bunker

The bootlace weed can sometimes completely blanket the pebbles overlooking the reef at Chesil Cove in the summer. Scores of catshark, cuttles, young conger and other night time predators patrol this seasonal ‘jungle’ slope, happy to snack on whatever comes their way. This sleepy catshark was, as you can see, unsure what to make of me, poking its head tentatively through the weed to establish if I was either threat or food. Whilst it was considering this, I managed to play around with my strobes a little in an attempt to diffuse some of the light through the tresses of early summer algae. My subject let me to take three shots before swimming off into the night.

Judge's comment: A delightfully observed and well lit image of an iconic British subject more often photographed full bodied in the open but this has a much stronger photographic appeal and I would have re captioned this ‘Food or foe’. The back story confirms it soon decided Foe.
Peter Rowlands