Mauricio Handler thought it was just any other sea sponge, but his wife Julia apparently had a creative mind and saw outside the box. What seemed to be a cluster of purple sea sponge turned out have a startling resemblance to that of Sesame Street's famous Cookie Monster Muppet.

“It was Julia who went to get me, laughing through her mask about the unusual sponge,” Handler said. “So I did an about-face and went straight to it, and worked the subject to light it perfectly to get as much personality out of the picture as possible.”