4th Place Wide Angle

Gabriel Guzman

"The Gang"

The Story: It all started like a normal morning dive, when all of a sudden I felt a little bump on one of my fins. For a moment it seemed weird as I was a reasonable distance from the bottom. But when I turned around, I saw this Titan Triggerfish chasing me.

Apparently I was swimming near its nest and as expected, such a territorial fish defended its space. My reaction was to slowly swim away from the area without turning my back to it. I used my camera as a shield when it tried to bite me every 10 seconds or so, which gave an excellent opportunity to get some close shots.

While swimming backwards a turtle that was eating at the bottom decided to rise to the surface to breathe, and it seems that for a short moment it stopped to observe what was happening. We can see how the Titan Triggerfish notices and makes eye contact with the turtle as if it were thinking of changing target, but as I probably was the bigger threat, the chase continued on me. Simultaneously, and in a synchronized fashion, a Trevally passes swimming in the opposite direction which gives me a unique opportunity to captured a three main subjects in one shot. In conclusion, even if for a short moment it was a bit of a stressful situation, the dive ended as a positive learning experience - first because I wasn’t hurt, and above all because the fish was just trying to defend it’s territory. As a diver we must understand and respect all marine life that surrounds us because we are the invaders in their environment.

Location:  Norman Reef, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Equipment Used: Canon 5DSR Camera, Canon 8-15mm Fisheye Lens, Aquatica Housing, Dual Inon Z330 strobes

Camera Settings: F13, 1/200 sec, ISO 250

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