This image was captured on the same day as "Big Wave #1." That is, I was swimming in the ocean after a storm had passed through the town of Juno Beach on South Florida's Atlantic coast.
I had already shot a lot of breaking waves with my trusty Nikonos underwater camera (on indefinite loan from my friend, underwater photographer and fin inventor, Bob Evans), and when the wind died down for a while, I took advantage of it by swimming a little further out and capturing more shots of the open ocean. At this moment, I'm almost vertical in the water, keeping my torso up with gentle kicks of my swimmers fins. (I never use scuba diving fins in the ocean; I find them too big and clunky.)
Once I had the slide film back from the photo lab, I saw something special in this image. There's a quiet calmness about it. And, I think you really get a sense of being out in the water, which, of course, I certainly was--I was alone and probably a quarter mile offshore at this point. If you're shaking your head thinking that I must be a fool for doing such a thing, I don't blame you. But, where swimming is concerned, I've done crazier things (see the text with "Big Wave #1"). I've been known to swim straight out from the beach and not stop until I am out of sight of land, which, I have to admit, IS a little spooky.
If you're wondering about the color in this image, I did tweak it a bit. The real water is much more blue-green, as you can see in "Big Wave #1," but I wanted to give this a flatter, more eerie feel, so I accentuated the blues overall. And, by the way, those are the real clouds, just as they were.
I don't know about you, but if I stare at this image long enough, I actually feel like I'm bobbing and rocking with the waves. Try it and see if you don't feel the same.
-- Harald