Fascinating subjects often make for fascinating images. And this shot of coral researchers carrying out an underwater study in the Saudi Arabian Red Sea is up there with the most interesting I’ve ever seen.
In fact, it recently won an award at the Scientists at Work Photo competition, organized by academic journal publisher Nature.
Shot by Uli Kunz, a marine biologist and photographer-filmmaker, the image depicts fellow biologists and divers, Nauras Daraghmeh (left) and Yusuf El-Khaled (right) investigating how coral species are adapting to warming oceans amid climate change.
“As a host of the German nature documentary series Terra X, I was working on a shoot about coral reefs in Saudi Arabia," said Uli.
"We followed the scientists at KAUST [King Abdullah University of Science and Technology] to the so-called 'marine microbiome lab' where they install incubation chambers to check coral health."
Using a Sony A7S III in a Nauticam camera housing with a Nauticam Wide Angle Conversion Port 2 (WACP2) underwater lens attached, Uli got close to the “coral doctors”, opting for a 16mm focal length, 1/400 shutter speed, f/8.0 aperture and ISO640 sensitivity.
“I wanted to get a light reflection into the divers' masks to emphasize the looks onto their subject of research,” he explained. “I had to control and move each head precisely to get the desired effect and see the light of the dive torch behind the incubation chamber.”
Although this image gets my vote purely for how interesting it is, it's much more than just an intriguing composition. Uli said "photography and film will help us to educate people” – and he hopes the award-winning shot will show government decision makers what's happening in the "real world".
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