The Trumpet Fish – Story Behind the Shot
Everyone remembers their cover photos. This is one of my earliest cover shots for “Scuba Diver Australasia” magazine back in 2006. I still remember the story behind the shot as it’s the quickest sale I have made! I was diving in the morning with my brand new 105mm lens having a little fun with macro in Yap. The site is “Yap Caverns”, a wall dive where I would normally shoot wide angle. However, on this day I was shooting “blue background” macro due to the beautiful clear water found at this site. Yap Caverns is a multi purpose dive, with a series of swim thrus leading to a sheer wall.
I was concentrating in the shallows where the light makes for nice blue backgrounds for macro. Mostly I was shooting the beautiful anthias that abound on the edge of the reef. However, while swimming along the edge I found a beautiful juvenile trumpet fish hiding in a seafan. The tentacles of several crinoids would add great colour to the image. Seeing as the beautiful red of the trumpetfish would contrast well with blue, I took a series of 5 of 6 shots. Looking at the back of the camera I knew this one was exactly what I was trying to capture.
The Email
Upon arrival back at the dive centre of Manta Ray Bay Hotel, I checked my email to see that I had a message from the Art Director of Asian Diver. She was after a cover photo for the latest edition of the magazine for a tight deadline. My reply: “I just captured a great shot that I think will look good as a cover, let me download and I will send it over.” 30 minutes later my inbox pinged and the answer was an excited one! “This is perfect, I love it, so different than our usual covers, I am going to convince the editor to use it.” Sure enough, they decided to run with it as the cover. This image was captured on the second dive of the day and was on the cover of a magazine by late that afternoon!
How’s that for a quick turnaround?
Sadly, I don’t have either a printed copy of the magazine nor a PDF of the cover. If you are reading this and have this in your archive, I would love to receive a photo of it. Please send us An Email if you can help out.
