UPY 2024

UPY  Up & Coming - Commended
'Golden surface break'
Tim Glaeser

I've had this image in my head for a long time. I’ve long wished to take a split shot of a sea turtle at the sunset and create a beautiful play of colours between blue and orange. While I was diving and freediving in Indonesia for a few weeks, the conditions were often not perfect for this kind of shot. When my time on the Gili Islands was coming to an end, I almost gave up; at least I had a lot of other beautiful photos in my luggage. On the last evening, I went to the beach to enjoy the beautiful sunset with some freediving. And suddenly everything was right. The light was perfect, the clouds had a nice structure, the turtle was really relaxed. Now I was able to take the target photo and I’m very happy with image and the contrasting colours in this picture.

Judge's comment: A very effective use of several image components - space, colour contrast and perfect timing but I couldn’t help but feel that more underwater and less sky would have seen this shot much higher in the rankings.
Peter Rowlands