Monterey photographer’s pic wins award
“I knew the photo was special to me. But to have the judges agree? I literally don’t believe it.” David Slater, Monterey photographer
When the California Academy of Sciences announced the winners of its annual natural photography competition this month, the honorees included a former photo editor for National Geographic. An established commercial photographer in India. A 50-year Norwegian veteran whom the BBC once placed among the world’s 10 top nature photographers.
And an emergency room technician in Monterey who went diving last September and came across a dead sea lion slowly being devoured by starfish, 40 feet below the surface.
“It was pretty ironic — here I am on my day off, and I encounter this huge dead sea lion,” recalled David Slater, 32, about the first of what became six visits to grim yet haunting scene. “There was sadness, but also a certain nurturing beauty.”
Slater, who moved to Monterey from Hawaii five years ago, had his image “Sea Lion Fall” selected as the best photograph in the “Aquatic Life” category of the Academy’s BigPicture: Natural World Photography Competition. Established in 2014, the contest this year attracted more than 7,000 entrants. From these, nine were selected to receive awards.
As someone who says he “has been obsessed with undersea photography since I
was kid,” Slater was familiar with BigPicture. But he had never given thought to entering until real life intervened.
“Sea Lion Fall” was taken on the sixth and last dive that Slater took to survey the scene off Monterey’s San Carlos beach. With each visit, the sea lion remained on the ocean floor, face buried in the sand. With each visit, Slater saw more and more members of one species drawing sustenance
from the remains of another.
By the last visit, two dozen bat stars of varying sizes and hues had attached themselves to the carcass, latched tight so that one of their two stomachs could use enzymes to break down the solid mass and make it digestible.
Slater knew the grisly technical details, since he has a marine biology degree from the University of Hawaii. But
he also knew that he was encountering a rare glimpse of nature’s cycle of life — one made more solemn by a handful of sea lions hovering nearby, keeping watch but not intervening.
“Sea lions are pretty intelligent creatures, and I wondered if the one who had passed had belong to this rookery,” Slater said in a phone interview.
For his final visit to the
fallen sea lion — in between shifts at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula — Slater brought along the gear to take vivid images of the world beneath the water, including strobes to capture the true colors in the gauzy undersea setting. What he returned with has a calm and haunting surrealism — a still, gray creature studded with colorful sea stars, while other sea lions were a dim chorus in the background.
“I knew the photo was special to me,” said Slater, who has an Instagram account devoted to his off-hours passion. “But to have the judges agree? I literally don’t believe it.”
An exhibition of BigPicture’s seven winners and 42 runners-up will be held this fall beginning Sept. 30 at the Academy’s home in Golden Gate Park.
The full set of 49 prize-winning and finalist photos is at www.bigpicturecompetition. org/2022-winners.