Alejandro Navarro Otero, Mantas at night (BLACK & WHITE 2024)

A quick knock on our cabin door suddenly wakes me up – ‘Mantas are here!’. Never mind it’s 3am, I jump out of the bed and within 10 min I’m ready to get in the water. Up to 5 mantas are feeding on the plankton attracted to the lights of our diving boat. Their backflips and twirls are mesmerizing, almost like a dance. I managed to get several good shots of their side, but it wasn’t until the end of the dive that I got lucky and could snatch a photo of this majestic animal coming straight towards me with its mouth wide open. The dark background from the night setting and the mantas natural two-tone coloration made it the perfect combination for a Black & White transformation.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.