INSPIRATIONS

lessandro scooped up the first place in the Underwater close-up category with his fantastic octopus portrait. He told us, “In the past three years, the bacterium Mycobacterium sherrisii has caused the mass death of Pinna nobilis (noble pen shell) throughout the Mediterranean Sea. Most of the empty shells of the large bivalve have been colonized by other marine species. In this case, an octopus takes advantage of the large shell to create its den and protect itself from predators. I used a slow shutter speed and circular panning motion to give dynamism to the image and emphasize the subject.”