Name: László Földi
Picture title: Escape
Category: Human and nature
Nationality: Hungary
Occupation: I’m not a full time photographer. Im an engineer working in my family company. Underwater photography is my passion.
Technical information
Camera: Canon 7D Mark II
Lens: Tokina 10-17mm F3.5-4.5 AT-X 107DX Fisheye
EXIF: ISO 200, f/ 9,0, 1/250
Accessories: Subal underwater housing, 2x Inon Z-330 strobes.
HIGHLY COMMENDED HUMAN AND NATURE
László Földi | Escape
Name: László Földi
Picture title: Escape
Category: man and nature
Nationality: Hungary
Occupation: Im not full time photographer. Im an engineer working in my family company. The underwater photography is my passion.
Technical information
Camera: Canon 7D Mark II
Lens: Tokina 10-17mm F3.5-4.5 AT-X 107DX Fisheye
EXIF: ISO 200, f/ 9,0, 1/250
Accessories: Subal underwater housing, 2x Inon Z-330 strobes.
László Földi says:
I took this image in the Red Sea (Egypt), when our boat returned to the port of Hurghada at the end of the day after diving. Near the shore we noticed another boat, and saw people jumping into the water. They usually don’t swim in this part of the sea, because boat traffic can be dangerous. We went closer to see if the other boat needed help, when we got closer to the other boat, we saw people trying to swim with this huge peaceful giant.
The whale shark, the largest fish in the world, but very peaceful, and very rarely seen in this part of the sea. The largest accurately measured whale shark was 18.8 meters. Whale sharks are filter feeders and cannot bite or chew. They can process more than 6,000 liters of water per hour through their gills. Although the mouth can stretch 1.5 meters wide, the teeth of a whale shark are so tiny that it can only eat small shrimps, fish and plankton by using their gills rakers as a suction filter.
The shark also allows people to get close to himself. Unfortunately, this is why many people try to get close and take a photo with the shark or touch it. This can be dangerous for the shark, and also for the people, because it can be an accident when the shark hits the swimmer with the fins. This was a lucky moment because nobody was injured, and the whale shark was peacefully swimming close to the surface. I grabbed my camera, and also jumped into the water, to take a picture about this moment, and with my photo draw attention to the rules for protecting marine life.
László Földi
Hungary
My name is László Földi. I fell in love with the sea, and immediately with diving when I had my first dive more than twenty years ago. After the first time I put my head in the water, I could not get the underwater world out of my head. I have always spent my holiday diving and mainly with friends in the Red Sea.
I worked most of my time as an engineer, but scuba diving became part of my life. After my family business had been established, it was the turning point. I had more time to spend with the underwater world. I have taken many necessary exams and became a scuba diving instructor. During more than thousand dives I saw many fishes and sea creatures I had dreamed about since I saw them on TV when I was younger. I didn’t just want to keep them in my memory, so I bought a DSLR camera with housing and strobes in 2013. Since then I have not dived without a camera.
Every day I look at my images trying to learn from my mistakes, look at others and develop myself, and thinking of the next projects. Planning is very important, because we only have few opportunities to capture the moment. I really love both wide-angle and macro themes. There are many challenges in both, I try to show the uniqueness of nature in my photos, but at the same time to draw attention to its fragility, which is often due to the human factor.