Shortlisted - People's Choice Award - Travel Photographer of the Year 2023

Shortlisted Finalist - British Photography Awards 2020
People's Choice Award / Water Life Category

Finalist - Travel Photographer of the Year. December 2016.
Wildlife and Nature.

Wonderland

The incredible Fibonacci nuts and bolts of a Purple Sea Urchin’s exoskeleton with its delicate tentacle-like tube feet peeking out. Its architectural, venomous purple spikes are perfectly arranged according to the golden ratio giving these “hedgehogs of the sea’ an otherworldly appearance, a visitor from another planet!

Dive after dive I’d been on the hunt for the perfect sea urchin. Usually they come out to play at night but on this particular trip, night diving wasn’t on the cards. Most of the urchins were hidden away in rocky crevices. Every now and then I’d find one but then getting my camera and housing low enough to get the right angle was proving a frustrating challenge. I finally struck gold with this one which was sitting bold as brass on top of the reef.

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Showcased in my first solo exhibition 'Drops in the Ocean' - hosted by The Press Room gallery & cafe in Surbiton, London.
July - August 2017

This image of a Purple Sea Urchin appears in the Wonderland series on Abstracts and Creative Visions

Location: Isola Caprera, La Maddalena Archipelago, Italy

Photographer: Laura Storm