The Winning Shot: June 2019
Winner of the Scubaverse Underwater Photography Competition – June 2019, Alex Permiakov tells us all about their winning shot…
Location
Dauin, Philippines
Equipment
- Nikon D800
- Nikkor 105mm
- Nauticam housing
- INON UCL-165 wet lens
- Inon Z-240 Strobes
- Retra LSD snoot
Settings: ISO160 1/250 f14
Dive Centre
Fish Unlimited Resort
The Shot
The shot was taken during the SEA (Small exotic animals) shootout in April 2019 at Dauin, Philippines. Dauin is just in 2 hours by ferry from the Panglao island, where I live. I would say it’s the frogfish capital of the Philippines, so I was shooting some nice juvenile frogfish during one of the dives. When we surfaced one of the guides told me he saw the shrimp riding the nudibranch! So, as you can guess, we spent quite some time during the second dive trying to find this nudi. And, kudos to the spotters, we succeeded!
It was quite big Nembrotha with the emperor shrimp riding it. I have spent about 20 minutes waiting for the perfect moment. There was some current and the shrimp was actively changing position which was a bit frustrating because I was using a snoot and close up lens. If you have tried that, you know what I mean! I was trying to have a frontal shot with the rhinophores and shrimp in focus, but it was nearly impossible, because most of the time the shrimp was moving by the side of nudibranch up to the gills and back, and then I realized that contrast of green/blue gills with the orange shrimp is just fascinating and focused on this combination. A few clicks after, the timing was just perfect and I got this “money shot”. It was all about having the idea of the shot in your head and waiting for the moment.
To see more of Alex’s images:
