Description
LOCATION: The Bahamas
STORY BEHIND THE SHOT: How can you not love mangroves? This school of juvenile fish certainly agrees. Like in the image Sole Survivor, this is Red Mangrove (Rhizophora mangle), and this image shows the waterline at high-tide. At low-tide, the water here is just a few inches deep. I rented a small boat from a local for a few days, and when he started giving me the best fishing locations, he looked a bit confused when I told him that I had no interest in fishing, but was interested in photographing mangroves. “Mangroves are everywhere?!” he said. But I wasn’t after just any mangroves – I needed clear water, white sand, and several other factors to line up. After a few days of marking out spots, I timed this location for the incoming high tide, and snorkeled around for an hour or so before taking any shots. There are areas in the mangrove forest that are far to dense to swim through, and sometimes even easy to get lost inside. It can be easy to get the creepy-oompa-loompa vibes among the dark shadows when the large, but flexible roots are constantly bumping into you. But this composition was in an area just outside the thickest part of the forest. With my fisheye lens behind a 9″ glass dome port, I blended a combination of the bright, natural sunlight behind me, with a pop from my powerful flashes to highlight the fish and mangrove roots.
If you ever find yourself in southern Florida, the Bahamas (well, pretty much anywhere in the Caribbean) or the South Pacific where there’s mangroves, I’d highly encourage you to take a swim through them. It’s completely different from snorkeling on the reef. You’ll see all sorts of new creatures, and it’s particularly fun to see the juveniles of the regular reef fish taking shelter among the mangrove roots, where larger predators can’t navigate. No, it sure won’t look like the reef in Finding Nemo, but it’s an ecosystem that very few people ever take the time to explore.
TO PURCHASE THE GROVE AS A FINE ART PRINT ON ALUMINUM: You can order The Grove in standard-sized prints in it’s original 3:2 ratio online here, but for custom sizes up to 200″ wide and more panoramic or squared crops, contact out design team, and we’ll walk you through the options.