UPY 2025

UPY  Macro - Highly Commended
'Green & Red'
Sunbong Jung

I feel really great pleasure when I focus on tiny eyes, dots and antennas through the viewfinder. On this dive I spent several minutes following this juvenile puffer filefish and waiting for it to come into my frame. It was a challenge to shoot the perfect moment with a perfect sideview of the fish and the red curtain fully spread on my frame. I almost deleted this shot because I thought the white backscatter right in front of the fish’s mouth ruined the entire photo. Luckily, my lovely wife, Jussica, insisted that I must enter this photo. That's why I'm here!

Judge's comment: A pop art palette of prime colours make this frame impossible to ignore. But it is the tiny white dot, the object of the filefish’s attention that fills this careful composition with purpose.
Alex Mustard