Chloe McDonald, Darting Sunlight. (ANIMALS 2026)

I captured this image of an Australasian Darter at the Victoria Lake just after he'd come up from a dive. The bird is backlit so it's given an almost diamond like effect to the water droplets which I find beautiful, especially against the dark feathers and combined with the black and white. Canon R50 w/ EF 100-400 usm II lens (ef-rf adapter used) at 1/1000, f/5.6 and iso 250.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.