Honorable Mention Place Blackwater

Bo Pardau

"Alien"

The Story:

I was on a blackwater night dive with friends on a private boat 4 miles offshore with an ocean depth of roughly 4000 feet and hovering at a depth of 70 feet when I saw this amphipod, roughly 2" long, and begin shooting it from different angles as it drifted. Clear creatures are particularly difficult to focus on as there is little contrast and my subject was being photobombed by the tiny zooplankton that are drawn to the focus light, but I got one image that had such an attitude that I had to spend the time cleaning up the backscatter. Post processing included a minor crop to enhance the angle, level adjustment, shadows and highlights, brightness and contrast, and of course, clearing the zooplankton.

Location:

4 miles offshore, west of Honokohau Harbor, Kailua Kona, Hawaii.

Equipment Used:

• Canon 7D
• mk ii with a 60mm macro lens in an Ikelite housing with 2 - Ikelite DS160 strobes and 2 - Sola 1200 focus lights

Camera Settings:

• f/13
• 1/160 sec
• ISO 320