UPY 2025

UPY  Compact - Highly Commended
'Circle of life'
Andrea Michelutti

Favorinus tsuruganus and its eggs on a Spanish dancer’s egg ribbon (Hexabranchus sanguineus). This image captures a stark contrast between nature’s beauty and its harsh realities. The bright colours and intricate designs of the nudibranchs are captivating, but they hide a brutal reality.
The nudibranch in the foreground feeds on the eggs of the Spanish dancer, and it has also laid its own white eggs on top as well. This scene illustrates a type of cannibalism predation: a phenomenon where one nudibranch specialises on feeding on another, albeit at its egg stage. Shooting this image required a great deal of patience, as the constant movement of the purple eggs, caused by the current, continually obscured the nudibranch and its eggs. But finally I succeeded in capturing this portrayal of the ‘circle of life'.

Judge's comment: Just the right amount of shadow and depth of field draws the eye easily and the contrasting colours and shapes capture the natural beauty even if the reality is predatory. Beauty and the beast.
Peter Rowlands