Ocean Art Underwater Photo Contest

January 8, 2015

Marine-Life-Behavior_Borut-Furlan-egg-tr

“Egg Transfer”

First Place, Marine Life Behavior Category

Borut Furlan

Shot in the Adriatic Sea, Croatia

One of the more remarkable events in nature is the spawning and incubation process of the Mediterranean cardinal fish whereby the female transfers her eggs to the mouth of the male in the blink of an eye.

The male then broods up to 90 eggs in its mouth for 30 days, during which time it doesn’t eat.

Photographing the egg transfer is nearly impossible, since it can occur in less than two seconds. So it is understandable that underwater photographer Borut Furlan had no idea what he had shot in a semi-dark cave of the Adriatic Sea off Croatia—until he reviewed the photo on the camera’s screen.

The split-second moment of the transfer was captured perfectly and earned Furlan first place in the Marine Life Behavior category of the 2014 Ocean Art Underwater Photo Contest, sponsored by The Underwater Photography Guide.

“Capturing fast underwater behavior requires a delicate combination of preparation, photo skill and luck,” Brent Durand, editor of The Underwater Photography Guide, told GrindTV in an email. “Borut Furlan’s winning image ‘Egg Transfer’ is a perfect example of pulling all these elements together to capture a moment that is rarely seen, and rarely, if ever, documented throughphotography.”

Furlan admitted he was lucky.

In the darkness of the cave, he turned off his pilot lamps so as not to scare the pair of cardinal fish he was observing swimming close together in circles.

“Fortunately my AF [auto-focus] worked well in a dark cave and flashes also didn’t scare them,” Furlan wrote in explaining how he got the shot. “I was shooting a lot.

“I was very fortunate to get this shot because egg transfer lasted [less than two seconds]. Actually I even didn’t see it clearly in the dark cave. I realized what I was shooting only when I reviewed my images on the camera’s screen!”

Furlan was among the 60 underwater photographers who won awards for their photos.