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I love how you’ve taken the creative motion blurs technique 1 step further, and I think it will get you some competition success, as juries value novelty.
You also need the right subject for this technique to “make sense”. Like I said in the creative motion blurs webinar, the challenge is getting viewers to understand why you’ve used that technique, they need to find meaning on a rather abstract photo. Otherwise you’re just hoping to win them based on aesthetics. I think your choice of a hairy frogfish is good, with the technique letting you simulate the lure’s movement.
Now I am not sure if these are the shots that will win you awards with these technique, and I’d encourage you to do more attempts. Still, here are some suggestions for post processing, which might do the trick:
First shot
I like the idea of a facing portrait, but to me the subject is too close to the right. Assuming this was cropped and there is space available, I’d suggest you have the subject centered. while the lure movement would break the symmetry, which is fine as it will stand out this way. Note for UPY, nothing stops you from adding black/empty space on the right even if it wasn’t there (photoshop), provided you don’t use generative AI.
Second shot
I like the composition, the lure ‘movement’ is perfect in telling a story, it looks realistic. However, the blurred background breaks the magic: an experienced jury member would straight away realise you’ve “fabricated” the lure movement, whereas they might have been tricked if the background was black or plain.
In anycase, if you choose to enter this photo, I’d recommend a contrast boost + backscatter cleanup.
I also feel both frogfish could do with some local sharpening (texture + a bit of clarity maybe).