Prints · Tulamben · Limited edition of 20

Sapphire II

Tunicate black · Size 2 cm

The story · in my own words

It looks like glass. It is an animal.

A tunicate is a sea squirt: a soft tube anchored to the reef, drawing water in at one opening and pushing it out at the other, filtering its food from the current. Two centimetres tall. It has no eyes, no brain to speak of, and it is, improbably, a closer relative of ours than anything else on this reef.

Lit from one side with a single beam narrowed almost to a pencil, the tube becomes a lantern: the ribs inside show through, the rim catches the light, and everything around it falls to black. A supermacro lens on top of the macro lens gets this close. Holding still in current, for one frame that does not move.

Tunicates against black water, Tulamben.

$300Sizes below

01Choose a size

Limited edition of 20 · printed to order

Choose a size

Enquire about this edition · $300

Prices in US dollars; shipping is a flat $25 to Canada and the United States. Printed to order and shipped from Canada. Framing is not offered: shipping glass across a border is a bad idea for everyone.

02How it was made

How it was made · from the file

Eight lines from the dive

Exposure

ISO 100 · 1/250 · f13

Camera

1DX MKII + EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

Housing

Nauticam 1DX MKII

Lighting

Single Retra strobes, Gen I

Accessories

Nauticam SMC-2

Technique

Macro inverted

Conditions

Particulate and current

Visibility

18 m

The technique and lighting lines link to the craft articles that explain them. A dash means the record does not hold it, and I would rather show the gap than fill it.

03Where

Where · Northeast Bali