The Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) Awards always give us plenty of amazing images to gander at, and the latest from the most recent edition of the competition is of a heart-pounding fight for survival between a fish and a crab in sticky mud that brings to mind the abysmal conditions soldiers endured in the trenches of World War I.
Shot on a Nikon D850 DSLR camera with a 500mm lens, the scene, which came second place in the Wildlife, Sealife and Birdlife Portfolio category, perfectly frames the hunting crab as it hauls a blue-spotted mudskipper out of the liquid mud.
Behind the camera was American photographer Emma Parker, who created the image on a bright day at the mudflats near Broome, Western Australia.
Despite the sunlit conditions, Parker used an ISO of 500 to give a 1/2500sec shutter speed at f/10, which also ensured she captured the split-second action crisply. Whether the blue-spotted mudskipper became crab food or not is left to the imagination!
As part of the same series, Parker also captured two mudskippers in a separate duel, mouths agape and fins aflare, this time not fighting for life, but for territory and feeding-ground dominance in the mudflats.
Located primarily in Roebuck Bay and Dampier Creek, these massive mudflats, which stretch for miles when tides recede, are known for being ecological hotspots. Recognized as a wetland of international importance, they are home to hundreds of thousands of migratory shorebirds, mudskippers, and one of the most biodiverse marine invertebrate communities in the world.
The Travel Photographer of the Year is a prestigious global competition founded in 2003, accepting entries from professional and amateur photographers in categories covering travel, culture, and wildlife. The 2026 edition of the event is now open for entries, and you can view all 2025 winning images here.
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This Travel Photographer of the Year winning photograph is proof that award-winning images can be created from everyday, boring moments.
