HIGHLY COMMENDED CATEGORY UNDERWATER
Matthew Sullivan | Entering Hyperspace

Name: Matthew Sullivan
Picture title: Entering Hyperspace
Category: Underwater
Nationality: USA
Occupation: Photography is a small part of my income. I’m also a safety diver and sales rep for several scuba related brands.

Technical information
Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: Nikon 13mm RS
EXIF: : 1/10, f9, ISO 160
Accessories: Nauticam Housing, 2x Retra Flashes

Matthew Sullivan​ says:

I’ll be the first to admit, I was never much interested in salmon as a photographic subject. A trip to Alaska changed that. We spent several days getting skunked looking for salmon sharks. Eventually, we conceded defeat and went into a mountain creek looking for salmon. Two days of salmon photography and I was hooked. It was another year before I was able to photograph salmon again, this time in British Columbia. A friend was kind enough to bring me to a remote spot that was loaded with Pink Salmon in various stages of their breeding cycle. Dead and dying salmon were everywhere, healthy salmon were paired up on redds, and thousands more were still fighting their way upstream. I spent several hours at the base of a small waterfall, surrounded by fish. The environment is chaotic so I chose to use slow shutter speeds to exhibit this. I captured some nice images but decided to slow the shutter speeds, even more, to let the bubbles from the waterfall turn into long streaks. Part of the fun with this technique in that environment is every single frame looks different as you can never be sure how the bubbles will arrange themselves while the shutter is open.