Jake Wilton, The Manta Ray (BLACK & WHITE 2021)

The Elaborate dance of the manta ray as it feeds along the Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. Occurring just a handful of times a year, and in only a few places around the world, manta rays will perform continuous barrel rolls as they engulf huge mouthfuls of plankton. Many factors must line up to photograph these ocean giants as they perform this rare type of feeding behaviour. Visibility is usually always too poor, the rays must be deep enough to reduce the sun reflecting off their bellies, plankton must be dense enough for them to feed but thin enough not to affect the image, they must roll at the perfect angle to allow the natural sun light to light up there bodies, and when all these factors align you must free dive down to capture the image on a single breath.

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