Ocean Photographer of the Year accessibility - Fine Art

Fine Art Photographer of the Year is awarded to the photographer who creates an image of particular aesthetic power.

Fine Art Photographer of the Year

Henley Spiers Baja California Sur, Mexico

Photographer Henley Spiers, is half British and half French, he has been working as a photographer for 10 years and is one of the most highly decorated underwater wildlife shooters in the world. Henley is perhaps best known for his black and white imagery. He said he has tried to capture this image over several years.

Equipment Nikon D850, Nikon 28-70mm lens @ 28mm, Nauticam WACP-1, Nauticam housing, Inon Z330 strobes
Settings 2 secs, f/22, ISO 1000
Image size 143.5 x 143.5 cm

Image text “Born during the great mobula aggregations of spring, juvenile Munk’s devil rays remain in the Sea of Cortez long after their parents have left,” explains Spiers. “At night we hung a green light from the back of our boat. As plankton gathered around it, the mobula rays gratefully swooped in for a microscopic buffet. The rays seem to fly through the water as they pursue their dinner.”

The photograph was taken in calm, water with a temperature of 27 degrees, while scuba diving late at night. Site accessed by boat

Munk's devil ray have a horizontally flattened body, bulging eyes on the sides of its head and gill slits on the underside. Small for a sting ray, they grow to a width of up to 1.1 metres and weigh up to 25kgs. The ray’s upper surface, in natural light, is lavender-grey to dark purplish-grey, and the underside is white. A pair of fleshy lobes protrude from the front of its head, enabling it to funnel food into its mouth as it moves through the water.

Munk's devil ray has been documented leaping out of the water, either alone or in groups, performing vertical jumps, somersaults and other acrobatic manoeuvres.

This is an underwater image of six young rays, their antics creating swirling, criss-crossing green-lit trails of light through black water.

On our left, streaky green light blurs the dark water, as though overlaid with a thin film of fabric. Two rays, far off and small, flap their sides, swimming toward the right, away from the chaotic light. Their undersides are flecked with black spots. Mid-flight, each has one fin upturned, revealing a cookies and cream-coloured triangle. They swim one above the other.

Through the green streaked water, the sea all around is white flecked, plankton and debris caught in the light. The specks are like stars in the blackness.

In the centre of the image, green light trails in an elongated S curve beginning from the bottom of the image, up and to the right. In its wake, two rays tumble to our right and behind them, two more at a distance. Below is inky and unlit.

The two rays in the foreground are opposites, one swims angled toward us, its front fleshy lobes bent inwards to form an O shape. Its flat, dark grey body is executing a turn. The fin on our left slices the water, curling upwards. Its thin edge glows white.

The creature’s other triangle- shaped fin is down-turned in a delicate arc at right. Behind and further right, with its fleshy underside facing us, an equally sized ray, dives. Its front food flaps are extending out in front, two converging rows of gill-slits laddering the white skin behind its head in a V shape . A long, straw-thin, light-coloured tail points diagonally up behind its diamond-shaped body.

Whooshing behind the front two, as though descending and ascending a crescent, two smaller rays, farther off, dart through the water.

A ballet of green light left behind by the rays twisting dance steps in their densely speckled, inky playground.

Fine Art Photographer of the Year is awarded to the photographer who creates an image of particular aesthetic power.

This is the category winner, by Henley Spiers. Please feel free to touch and explore.

Juvenile Munk’s devil rays, a species of sting ray, fly through the water performing somersaults and other acrobatic manoeuvres in pursuit of their plankton dinner. The photograph was taken with a long exposer, leaving green, wispy patterns from the Munk’s devil rays in the water.

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