The eye of the baitball

Cristobal Serrano's Image

Cristóbal found this great circling shoal of grunt fish in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, and watched it over two days.

He would dive down and then sit on the sandy bottom some 20 metres below the surface to watch. ‘With the sky behind the fish ball,’ he says, ‘it looked like a shimmering body of energy. I just needed a focal point to get the picture I was after.’ A pelagic cormorant was also watching the fish, and now and then it would shoot a hole through the ever-tightening baitball (tightening in response to the predator), making it easier for it to pick off individual fish. Cristóbal tried to predict the angle that the cormorant would use. After many attempts, using a fisheye lens and strobes to illuminate the fish and the sandy bottom, he got the shot.


Behind the lens

Cristobal Serrano

Cristobal Serrano

Spain

After graduating in optics and optometry from Alicante University and studying general management programmes at IESE Business School, at the age of 21, Cristobal’s interest in the environment, wildlife and the creative world led him to nature photography. All his projects have a common denominator, which can be summarised by the concept – the art of creation, is the art of nature.

Image details

  • Canon EOS 5D Mark II
  • 8-15mm f4 lens
  • 1/125 sec at f4.5  •   ISO 100  •   Seacam housing
  • Sea of Cortez, Baja California, Mexico
Copyright in WPY competition photographs remains the property of the respective photographers. You may not copy, share, reproduce or republish the photographs except as expressly permitted by copyright law. For media image usage enquiries, please contact us.

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