UPY 2025

UPY  British Waters Macro - Third
'Stars and Stripes'
Sandra Stalker

In summertime the towers of bootlace weed in Kimmeridge bay, Dorset, are covered in tiny 5mm beautiful stalked jellyfish. Each with a unique pattern and colour, like tiny intricate lace doilies. For this image I wanted the stalked jellyfish to stand out like a jewel on the weed where they are naturally quite camouflaged, so I lit the weed from behind with a blue light and snooted the tiny swaying stalked jellyfish with white light. This was my second attempt at this shot having trialled it but not quite got the result I wanted the previous week. Being lucky to live close to the dive location was a key ingredient in producing a successful image.

Judge's comment: Graphically simple images always catch the eye and this one appealed immediately, geometrically, and then the almost theatrical lighting topped off by excellent and the almost indiscernible snoot light gave it star quality. Less is more and subtle is much more.

Peter Rowlands