UPY 2025

UPY  Up & Coming - Runner Up
'Encircled'
Sarah OGorman

Summer 2023 brought the usual small groups of baby barracudas to each coral pinnacle on the house reef at Marsa Shagra, but for the first time in the 11 years I have lived there, they all gradually came together as one giant bait ball in the entrance of the bay, giving divers no choice but to pass through them at the start and end of their dive. Snorkelers spent hours every day floating above them, mesmerised by their movements.
One particularly clear and quiet morning, I was able to witness and photograph this free diver as she played amongst them, influencing their formation for as long as her breath would last. As autumn passed, the juveniles grew and the bait ball attracted hunters such as snappers, jacks and bigger barracudas who feasted for several months, and by winter it was if it had never existed.

Judge's comment: This was a particular favourite of mine for its graphic simplicity, compositional symmetry and perfect timing. The lighting/exposure is spot on and the distortion of the lens creates a form of Snell’s Window like icing on a cake.
Peter Rowlands