Sea Turtle Sunrise

My time spent at Lady Elliot Island, a small speck of land located on the Southern Great Barrier Reef was short, just five days. I had to make the most of my time. This meant an alarm clock going off at 4:30 in the morning each day, so that I could be ready with my mask, fins, snorkel and camera gear to be in the water before the sun cracked the horizon. Well worth the effort as the sunrises (such as the one you see here) on a couple of the days were still to this very day, some of the most stunning I have ever witnessed. Thanks to a cyclone moving into the area, ocean conditions were rather difficult to shoot in. Even though we were in an area that was somewhat protected by a reef, the swell and waves were breaking over top of the outer reef making for very choppy, rolling conditions with a strong current.  My main goal was to capture split shots (images where you see both above and below the surface of the water line) To add to the degree of difficulty, because I was using a flash mounted on the top of Aquatech water housing and my subject was under the dark water I needed to light, I had to hold my housing upside down! Yes, that is correct, I had to view and shoot upside down! Not easy on dry land, let alone in the water while looking through a dive mask and camera housing. For the technical junkies out there, I also had to shoot at very slow shutter speeds in order to also capture the beautiful natural light and colours of the sky above the water. Shooting a moving subject, while you are moving at 1/30th of a second means many more failed attempts than it does keepers. But it means the keepers I created were well worth the painstaking efforts and, I hope you agree! I also made a physical sacrifice for my art, somehow, tiny shards of coral found their way between my fins and the tops of my feet, resulting in very painful cuts that led to a coral infection. There were also a handful of painful jellyfish stings to contend with, all worth it for the experience of time spent with sea turtles.