Ocean Art 2022 - 3rd Place Macro
3rd Place Macro
Nicolas Remy
"Southern Bobtail Squid"
Nicolas Remy won a trip for one to Malpelo, Colombia aboard the Ferox!
The Story: • During the last Southern winter, I visited Hobart (Tasmania) to photograph the rare spotted handfish. l got tipped that another photogenic critter was sometimes found at night, in one of the local dive sites. Indeed, the Southern Bobtail Squid (euprymna tasmanica) is a nocturnal animal, which spends the day buried in the sand, and only emerges to feed after dark.
Although my drysuit and rebreather both help me stay warmer, the prospect of a solo night dive in 11 degrees Celsius water wasn’t so tempting, and I kept putting off that dive, until nearly the end of my trip.
I am glad that I finally found the motivation to go, and I got rewarded with unexpected company: a car had slid down the boat ramp, and a few people were seeing how to get it back on land. Also, this meant my shallow muck-dive had been upgraded to a wreck dive! Between attempts to help attach a rope onto the car for towing, I had a short dive around the Kingston Beach boat ramp, and was delighted to spot a southern bobtail squid in only 2 meters of water!
The sandy bottom wasn’t too interesting visually, so I used a snoot to emphasize the squid, and draw its shadow on the sand.
Location: Kingston Beach, Tasmania, Australia
Equipment Used: Nikon D810 Camera, Nikon 105mm AF-S Macro Lens, Nauticam Housing, Retra Flash Pro with 1x Retra LSD Snoot, Nauticam EMWL-1 Wet Lens
Camera Settings: ISO 640, F18, 1/250 sec
