Gorgeous Deep Sea Photography of Luminous Plankton Floating Through Dark Japanese Waters

A post shared by Ryo Minemizu (@seacam1970) on Aug 4, 2017 at 6:42pm PDT

Deep sea photographer Ryo Minemizu has captured absolutely gorgeous shots of luminous plankton floating through the dark waters of the nighttime Osezaki Sea in Japan. These and other stunning images are part of his “Phenomenons” series, which focuses on the delicate workings of tiny plankton that have opened up a whole world for the photographer. Minemizu stated that his mission is about the “preciousness of life”, so he is very careful to not disturb anything around him. He also uses a fast shutter speed over a long period of time so as not to upset the balance.

Why are the shapes and colors of plankton as tiny as a few millimeters so awe-inspiring? It’s because the life is in its perfect status – drifting to the flow of the water in the natural environment. I typically spend about 8 hours a day – night and day – underwater, drifting and pressing the shutter button of my camera all the time. My basic shooting method, especially during the night, is to shoot with a fast shutter speed controlling the Depth of Field at fractions of millimeters, always paying attention to the movement of the water around the tiny shooting objects.

Many of these photos are featured in his show entitled “Jewels of the Night Sea“. The show will be touring Canon Galleries in Ginza (Monday, August 20, 2018 – Wednesday, August 29, 2018), Nagoya (Thursday, September 6, – Wednesday, September 12, 2018) and Osaka(Thursday, September 20, 2018 – Wednesday, September 26, 2018)