Jeff Rotman

Natural History, Dec, 2000

I love to night dive. It allows me to get close to certain animals and to see nocturnal creatures I would miss during the day. One evening when I was moving along at a snail's pace underwater on a coral reef in the Red Sea, searching for small subjects for my macro lens, I spotted a lovely sea anemone of a kind I had not seen before. I trained my camera on it but was disconcerted to notice that I had only three frames left on the roll. (We pros look good because we take thousands of shots and publish only the one that comes out great!)

I had been in the water for more than two hours, and perhaps my concentration was beginning to fade. I decided to focus on the base of the anemone, where the tentacles are attached. After shooting the three frames in rapid succession, I headed back to the boat. Studying the images a month later, I was amazed to discover that a tiny symbiotic shrimp, which I had not seen when taking the picture, had been perched on the anemone. I realized I had captured a special picture. It won first place in BBC Wildlife's annual photography contest. Now, that is my definition of luck!