It was daytime during the monsoon season when I found this endemic snail species, called Indrella ampulla. It was drizzling and I wanted to portray the scene through my camera so I tried to get a backlit effect of the rain, using a speedlight. I found the eyes of the snail to be fascinating, with their unique colour and shape. So I decided to focus on its eye in the frame. I arranged the flash behind the tree and fired it wirelessly in such a way that it back-lit the atmosphere and snail’s eye at the same time. I also used another flash with minimum power and a diffuser from the front just to light up its eye pattern.

The photograph won a Special Mention prize in the ‘Animal Portraits’ category at the Nature in Focus Photography Awards 2021.