5th Place Novice DSLR

Markus Hunkel

"Open Ocean Encounter"

Markus won a 7-night dive package, unlimited shore diving and free bure upgrade from Wananavu

The Story:  Ilhéus das Formigas - with their very remote location, crystal clear waters and legendary marine life, these small islands are one of the best dive sites in the azores. Early in the morning we started in Santa maria. The trip itself can be a great adventure, allowing divers to spot turtles, seabirds, dolphins or something big like a whale. The sea was very calm and as we moved on everybody scanned his part of the horizon. Ten miles away from Santa Maria, suddenly a big dolphinfish jumped out of the water, doing it again even after we stopped the boat. We where not sure … but somehow felt there is perhaps something even bigger around. We hurried up getting the gear ready and went into the open ocean, at this point more than 1000 m deep. The dolphinfish was swimming around us and you could see, that he was already wounded … and then below us the predator who did it came into sight. A massive blue finned Marlin started circling around me, here and then sprinting with high speed again out of sight. I was deeply touched by this feral power, the elegance, the metallic-copper-blue-shining skin and this endless blue of an ocean with no reef or anker rope or anything destroying the purity of the moment. I tried to combine this with the massive speed of the action, especially the very second when the marlin turned right before us and accelerated like hell. Therefore not more than 1/125 to get some motion blur, slightly underexposed to underline this deep blue of the deep ocean and not much flash because of the skin being so reflective. Whenever diving again into this picture, i can recall the simple purity of this open ocean encounter.

Location:  Open Ocean between Santa Maria & Formigas/ Azores

Camera:  Sony A7II  and Sony 16-35mm Fisheye Lens (F6.3, 1/125, ISO 200) with Ikelite Housing and Dual Ikelite DS161 Strobes.

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