Photo of a muddy duel to the death between a crab and a fish captured on a DSLR was runner-up in top travel photography award

Crab snaps fish out of muddy water. — (Image credit: Emma Parker / tpoty.com)

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.

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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!

best camera for astrophotography: Nikon D850 — Parker used the Nikon D850 and a telephoto lens to capture the runner-up scene. This camera has ben trusted by wildlife photographers for years, and is often touted as the best DSLR camera of all time (Image credit: Future)

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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I’m a writer, journalist and photographer who joined Digital Camera World in 2026. I started out in editorial in 2021 and my words have spanned sustainability, careers advice, travel and tourism, and photography – the latter two being my passions.

I first picked up a camera in my early twenties having had an interest in photography from a young age. Since then, I’ve worked on a freelance basis, mostly internationally in the travel and tourism sector. You’ll usually find me out on a hike shooting landscapes and adventure shots in my free time.