Honorable Mention Marine Life Behavior
Jeff Milisen
“Alciopid in Ink”
The Story:
I always used to joke that “Nobody cares about worms.” The irony is that worms serve critical functions in the deep ocean, such as nutrient cycling through decomposition, providing important food web links, and even helping to pump carbon out of our atmosphere and into the deep. For years, I’ve observed strange clouds of brilliant green/blue ink drifting through at night and assumed they were unseen squids in the periphery. One night, however, I watched astounded an alciopid worm releasing the blue/green ink from its parapodia and snapped some photos as it swam around. I can’t think of a better way to get people to care about these undersung heroes of our ocean than to showcase the most brilliant display of ink I’ve ever seen.
Location:
USA, Kona, Hawaii, blackwater
Equipment Used:
- Camera – Canon 7D Mark II
- Housing – Ikelite
- Strobe/light – dual Ikelite DS-51 strobes
- Lens: 60mm EF-S lens
Camera Settings:
- ISO 400
- F/11
- Shutter speed 1/200s