Smithsonian magazine's 22nd Annual Photo Contest | Made possible through the support of MPB.com

18th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Tickled Pink

It was one of the most memorable moments of my entire life when I encountered the worlds only known Pink Manta Ray called Inspector Clouseau. I thought my strobes were broken or doing something weird as all my photos of this amazing and very rare manta were all so pink. For hours afterwards I was thinking in my head to maybe deleting the photos as I thought my white balance was off and my photos ruined. Only later that same day I heard about a Manta Ray that was pink and had been seen around the island and saw a photo of it. Even after that still not fully understanding what I had captured, I thought it was all just a joke until I had a light bulb moment and remembered the belly patterns of the manta in my photos looked very similar. I rushed to get my camera to check whether the patterns matched and my face turned tickled pink when I finally realized that I had captured something very rare and unique. Oh boy am I still glad today that I didn't delete the photos.

Photo Detail
Date Uploaded: 11.2020
Photo Location: Lady Elliot Island, Australia
Copyright: © Kristian Laine