UPY 2025

UPY  Wrecks - Runner Up
'Illuminating the Past'
Becky Kagan Schott

This is an image I've been trying to perfect for almost 6 years. I've had various conditions on the wreck of the Kyle Spangler over the years and tried to get this shot several times. Once there was too much ambient light so the lights didn't punch through the water as much and it looked dull and other times the visibility wasn't good or the thermocline came down too far which cut the top of the 30 meter tall mast off. The wreck sits in about 60 meters of cold water in the Great Lakes so there is little time down there to shoot. This past summer we had stellar conditions and I'm grateful to Jesper Rydstron and Fredrik Christiansson for modeling. It was dark enough that the lights really created a ghostly image of this wooden schooner that sank in 1860.

Judge's comment: Congratulations on persevering to get this shot. Just the right amount of well placed live and static lighting and the mast plays an important part to create visual scale and image depth. A great achievement.
Peter Rowlands