Underwater Excellence Competition - September 2011
Winner - Jane Morgan
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Jane Morgan
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Jane Morgan is a freelance underwater photo journalist, diving instructor and HSE Commercial diver. She lives in Cornwall and dives substantially all around the UK and overseas.
Jane discovered underwater photography during a trip to the Southern Red Sea in 2001 and never looked back. She moved to digital photography in late 2004 and now uses a Nikon D300s camera in a Sea and Sea housing with twin Inon Z240 strobes.
Jane is currently a relatively mature student at Falmouth University where she is studying for a degree in Marine and Natural History photography. |
Bottlenose Dolphins in the Red Sea
Nikon D300S with a 16mm lens |
Bottlenose dolphins - During a northern Red Sea safari on Emperor Superior during July we had an amazing hour in the water just off the back of the boat with two bottlenose dolphins. We were moored up in Abu Nuhas when the two dolphins appeared. Most of the guests including myself jumped in the water with them. The dolphins really wanted to play and they zipped around in the water in and out of the array of snorkellers and divers. What struck me most about the encounter was how tender they were with each other. After each burst of play they swam back together and touched each other gently with their flippers as if to ensure that their playmate was ok. |
A baby loggerhead turtle taken in the Bahamas
Nikon D300S with a 16mm lens |
Loggerhead turtle – In February this year I returned to Florida’s West Palm Beach to join another trip with Jim Abernethy. Although the focus of the trip was sharks Jim works closely with the Florida Atlantic University where they have been researching sex ratios of hatchling turtles. You can imagine my excitement when he picked me up at the airport with an esky in the back of the pickup housing baby greens and baby loggerheads. Greens and loggerheads require weed-lines, mostly sargassum – floating seaweed that provides a miniature ecosystem providing food and protection for a few years and Jim’s expertise means he finds the best sites for release, giving the baby turtles their best chances of survival. As the baby turtles were lowered gently into the water we had a few minutes to take their photos before they swam off to their new lives in the wild. |
Whip Gobies taken in Manado
Nikon D300S with a 60mm lens |
Whip Gobies – I’ve always had a soft spot for a whip goby and so was very excited when on a trip to Manado in April this year to find a beautiful whip with several gobies in situ. My intention was to try and get two gobies sharp in the frame but as most photographers know these little guys have a tendency to dance around up and down the whip quite quickly. So if you looked at my raw files you would find quite a few pictures with one and a half gobies before I managed to get this one.
To see more of Jane's images please visit her website www.morganreefphotography.com |
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