Underwater picture of a Bubble Jelly

This is a picture I took while kayaking in Drake’s Estero, a body of water lying within the Point Reyes National Seashore, one of my local parks.

This one was simple to take. I have a small, digital point and shoot camera with an underwater housing (these days I would just buy one of the many small digitals that can be used in and out of the water, instead of doubling my expenses by buying a camera and a housing).

I saw this really cool tiny jellyfish near the surface of the water. I have a macro setting on the camera, and I set it to that. I put my camera underwater (all settings automatic, but still in RAW shooting mode), put the camera right up to the jelly and took several images.

I had no way of seeing what I was doing (the screen was pointing towards the bottom of the estero, and the lens was pointing towards the surface) so I had to guess at composition. And got lucky. There were several that were fun, but this was my favorite.

The blurred light and dark lines in the background are the cliffs that line some of the shores of the estero.

The only thing special that I did in the first place was to be there, and then to put my camera in the water…

Happy shooting,

-Galen