The founder of Earthrace Conservation, Peter Bethune recently ran a photo competition looking for the best images of New Zealand’s endangered long-finned eels.
It was offering a very tempting $500 first prize. I knew that tucked away in my archives I had a good eel image.
After searching for a while I found it and sent my entry. I could sense that the species were important to Pete as numbers are declining due to commercial fishing, pollution, habitat loss and hydro dams.
After a little research I found that long fin eels can live for 100 years, they swim to Tonga and New Caledonia to breed, they breed only once and then die.
Seeing my eel image again bought back a lot of fond memories as my photographic career started underwater. While travelling the South Island with my dive and camera gear I stopped for a coffee at a place called Anatoki Tame Eels and Café near Takaka. When I spotted these beautiful creatures in crystal clear water I donned my wetsuit and jumped in. They seemed completely unfazed by my presence and after suffering cold-water shivers I managed to get this shot.
It was taken on a Nikonos underwater film camera. I later scanned the transparency to digital and was amazed how well it reproduced. Well, guess what? I received an email from Sarah at Earthrace telling me I was the winner! Yay. I was excited.
I am indeed a professional but would still like to remind any photographers out there that creating a prize-winning image is all about patience and determination. Visualize your finished image before you start and don’t give up until you get it exactly the way you want it.
Of course it also helps if you are lucky enough to be born with a certain amount of creative talent.
By Andy Belcher
“I write for this magazine because there is nothing quite like it and I love it!”
