UPY 2025

UPY  British Waters Macro - Highly Commended
'Common hermit crab with painted topshell'
Simon Temple

I always found shooting with vintage lenses a real challenge. I read a little and listened to others, I even dabbled with reversing elements in some lenses, searching for the much talked about bubble bokeh. After many failed attempts I realised the bubbles were more to do with the small points of light just outside the depth of field. In September last year I had just sourced a material I hoped would reflect points of light when Issue 140 of Underwater Photography Magazine landed. Enclosed was a great article on the Trioplan and Artisan lenses by Alex Tyrell. It confirmed most of the things I had discovered so far by trial and error. The final image of the article, a spotted hermit crab taken in Thailand, caught my eye. This was something I thought I could recreate in UK waters and after two practice dives I got my shot!

Judge's comment: Very nice usage of a bubble bokeh background on a common, but very photogenic subject. Perfectly placed on a nice and simple foreground it really adds up to an extraordinary image. We would have wished that the closer eye would be a bit more in focus as well and the image potentially could have placed even higher.

Tobias Friedrich