Description
LOCATION: West Papua, Indonesia
STORY BEHIND THE SHOT: I was told about a particular head of coral that the locals in Misool, West Papua called, “Birthday Cake”, and I was immediately intrigued. And once I found it, I immediately knew this was the place to create a new image that took bright, over-the-top color to a whole new level! I don’t recall ever seeing so much coral in practically every color of the rainbow all crammed into a dinner-table sized formation. One the the biggest challenges in creating this shot, is the colorful dendronephthya soft corals tend to deflate and droop when there isn’t much current. They only inflate and show their true beauty when they extend their polyps and feed in strong (sometimes very strong) current. And without accurate tide charts for this remote part of the Earth, it was a guessing game where I had to return again and again to get the optimal strong current. Of course, strong currents add their own issues to underwater photography, but what fun is the effort without a little challenge? An aptly-named coral structure, now immortalized and ready to be shared around the world as a limited edition photograph.
If you love the vibrant pop of coral reef colors, you may also want to consider Candyland and Lavish, with their similar bounty of marine life.
TO PURCHASE BIRTHDAY CAKE AS A FINE ART PRINT ON ALUMINUM: Birthday Cake is best kept at or near it’s original 3:2 horizontal aspect ratio such as 30×20″, 60×40″ or 72×48″, but it does crop well into art somewhat panoramic horizontal such as a 2:1 30×15″, 60×30″ or 72×36″, or even in a 96×48″ on a single piece of aluminum. You can purchase this piece in standard horizontal sizes online here, but please reach out to our interior design team for custom sizing up to 200″ wide.