Mateusz Piesiak's Image

Mateusz Piesiak (Poland) carefully considered camera angles to produce a series of intimate photographs exploring the behaviour of birds.

At sunrise a pair of great crested grebes in full breeding plumage begin a courtship
performance with the giving of gift. The male has offered the female a ribbon of waterweed, beginning a series of synchronised, ritualised moves.

Mateusz had prepared for this image by familiarising himself with the light at different times of day. He was lying on a camping mat underneath camouflage netting, his tripod in the water, with the lens just at the surface. 'You wouldn't guess,' Mateusz remarks, 'that this image was taken in a city'.