Bence Máté's Image

From his kitchen table, Bence planned the way he would photograph Dalmatian pelicans.

He wanted a water-level perspective of them. So he designed and constructed a catamaran-style floating system, incorporating an underwater camera housing and specially positioned lights and flashes, and set off for Lake Kerkini in northern Greece. 'It was a huge buzz,' says Bence, 'to find that the contraption actually worked.' Using cables, Bence took photos from a distance away on a boat, monitoring the scene on a screen and altering the settings with the ever-changing light. The fish-eye lens gave the unusual perspective of the pelican's pouch as it caught a fish thrown back into the lake by a fisherman.