3rd Place, Compact Marine Life Behavior

Alexander Bublitz

"My Home is my Castle"  Shot at Giglio Island, Italy with SeaLife DC1000

Alexander won his choice of $200 gift certificate with Bluewater Photo or Bluewater Travel!

The story:  I took this shot using my first equipment for uw-photography back in 2010 in the costal waters of Giglio Island in the Med. Sea.  Actually, I had just purchased the Sealife Bundle and it was one of my first dives with a camera under water! I got all excited when I saw the beautiful medusa Cotylorhiza tuberculata near the surface and hurried there to take a picture. Coming closer and having made the first shots, I discovered juvenile fishes hiding inside the medusa. I'm a marine biologist and thus knew about the behavior of juvenile teleost fishes belonging to different genera (Trachuru, Seriola) to swim with this cnidarian species and to hide inside the medusa for protection purposes, but I had never seen it myself. It took me quite a time and sure enough a stately number of shots to capture the moment, this very short instant, where the medusa's umbrella was flapped up so that the fishes were in sight together with correct focusing, exposure etc.

Location:  Giglio Island, Mediterranean Sea, Italy

Camera:  SeaLife DC 1000, SeaLife wide-angle wet lens, single SeaLife strobe

Settings:  f5.7, 1/240, ISO 64

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