107. Pink Whipray (Pateobatis fai previously known as Himantura fai) leaving a wreck

Subject:

A beautiful Pink Whipray (Pateobatis fai previously known as Himantura fai) leaves the wreck of the TUG 2 in Mauritius to go to its preferred habitat: the surrounding sandy bottom. This large stingray species can reach more than 5m/15ft in total length.

It is found in the coastal waters of the southern Indian and Pacific Ocean. These rays have a taste for crustaceans, in particular shrimp explaining why shrimp trawlers frequently catch it.

Technique:

Lights are not very useful when your subject is far away... in this case the use of an orange filter would have been preferable. Since I was initially close enough my lights were on when I started to film this ray. Little did I know that the ray was going to recede from the wreck.

I decided to continue to film with my lights on and without switching to my orange filter since switching to the orange filter would have made it necessary for me to white-balance again and I did not want to miss the shot. Later most colours (99% of this shot is monochrome blue/grey) were revived in post-production. If the scene would have been multi-coloured (corals, sponges and a lot of small colourful fish) it would have been much more difficult to change it into a vibrant clip.

More on this topic:

For a more in-depth description about the Pink Whipray please go to our vlog post 176 or click on this link: https://www.beyondscuba.com/post/a-pink-whipray-himantura-fai-swims-over-the-wreck-of-the-tug-ii

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