René Weterings from Geertruidenberg shows that you don’t have to go abroad for special fish. He won the Dutch underwater photography championship with photos of the underwater life in Zeeland. He was awarded gold once and silver three times for the four photos submitted. The master photographer proudly explains how he took the photos.
Calm lobster (silver)
“I photographed the lobster that looks into the camera with its two beady eyes in Lake Grevelingen at a depth of about five to six metres. It’s dark there, so you have to get started with extra flashes. Fortunately, it stayed still. I so I was able to stick with it to get it in the perfect position and get the light right. It took me over 30 minutes to get this one shot.”
The cauliflower jellyfish (silver)
“This special jellyfish is also called a sea mushroom and is the largest jellyfish in the Netherlands. It can grow up to sixty centimeters in size. I happened to swim past here on the competition day. Beautiful, isn’t it? That sun in the distance and that graceful attitude of the jellyfish .”
The weed landscape (silver)
“I didn’t have to go deep into the Grevelingenmeer for this photo. At less than a meter depth, maybe even half a meter – where you could simply snorkel – I took this photo. I came across this and I thought, this is typical diving or snorkeling in Zeeland, with the sun falling beautifully into the water and the fish in the background.”
Fish Portrait (Gold)
“I found this special fish this summer at a depth of eight meters in the Oosterschelde: the Horned Mucus. It lives in oyster shells and stays in the same place. That’s how I knew where to find it on the competition day. It quickly got used to me, so I could take pictures until I got the right image.”
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