Alien 1

Oxycephalus amphipod riding on a spiral raft of Salps

While hunting for the Aliens Collection, each night is a completely different adventure. On this particular night, within seconds of beginning my descent, I noticed a group of cloned salps coiled in a beautiful spiral shape – this caught my attention not just because of it’s aesthetic beauty, but because 99.9% of the time, they form a long stretched-out chain rather than this coil. I shot it a few times, and moved on looking for other freaks from the deep.

Within minutes, I realized there was a temporary local abundance of these salps coiled into spirals, and this is a topic I always encourage my photo workshop students to take advantage of, whatever species it may involve. So I set out moving from spiral to spiral, looking for the most perfect specimen; one that stood out. And when I finally found this one….eureka! Both salps and oxycephalus amphipods are exceedingly common, (although the spiral shape was unique) and I felt the two common subjects combined made for a portrait that explained the relationship of very different creatures navigating the void of the deep ocean together.