The unexpected dusky dolphins!
As a photographer, you too often deal with which issues you have to find because you have chosen a particular lens
I was making pictures of fellow divers and snorkelers on a shallow wreck on the Atlantic Side of the Western Cape in South Africa. Everyone was observing the fish life on the wreck, but I kept looking into the blue: in open water, anything can happen. While the others studied small fish, I discovered a group of dusky dolphins that came out of the blue.
Even if you have a macro or standard lens, always look around you. I spent at least five minutes alone with the dusky dolphins. When I see something like this, I start taking picture right away. I always hope that the other divers will also look into the open water. Eventually everyone was aware that there was more than just a sea lion that bothered the divers.
In the mean time I took beautiful close-up shots and mating dusky dolphins. When they found out that there was a group of dusky dolphins, the snorkelers came swimming in the frame. In this case, stay just where you are and look around, trying to find new angles and perspectives possible. The dolphins kept circling us.
There is a lot happening in this shot. The dolphins came really close and created a beautiful diagonal and depth in the photo. And a real surprise: two dolphins were about to mate on the left; two snorkelers top swam into the picture in the right-hand upper corner.
In situations like these: keep your cool and just keep shooting from different angles and use a minimum of 1/250 sec.! They are fast swimming animals! I am really happy with this shot!
