3rd Place, Marine Life Behavior
Jerry Tang
"Flamboyant Mates" Shot in the Lembeh Strait, Indonesia with Olympus OM-D E-M5
Jerry won his choice of $200 gift certificate with Bluewater Photo or Bluewater Travel!
The story:
I was diving in Lembeh and you could easily find flamboyant cuttlefish everywhere. It was low season at that time, so there were fewer subjects. The spotter and i were just observing this flamboyant and i was trying to compose waiting to get a feeding shot. Suddenly, this small one came from nowhere. They fiddle with their tentacles and suddenly the mouth was wide open. The small one swam in. I thought she was going to eat it. We were surprised and shocked to witness this. I kept calm and compose. The quick moment only allowed 2 shots with my camera.
After we came out of the water, my spotter said to me that he had never observed this before and the only thing that was on his mind was…."quick press the shutter". We were so excited – it really was a wonderful moment.
Later I found out that this is actually a mating behaviour.
This shot was difficult, as I was actually shooting with a snoot and the picture is uncropped.
Location: Lembeh Strait, Indonesia
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M5, Panasonic Leica 45mm lens, Nauticam housing, dual Inon Z-240 strobes, Snoot.
Settings: f20, 1/250, ISO 200
