News, Travel & Events

Staff · Issue 128, Sep/Oct 2022 · pp. 5–11

Products mentioned: Atlantis Azores liveaboard

News, Travel & Events The underwater photographer Henley Spiers, also well-known in Germany, has won the internationally renowned Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA). The Brit prevailed over around 500,000 photographers from all over the world. He was awarded $120,000 in prize money for his painting “Gannet Storm”. Henley Spiers says of his winning photo: “A gannet swims in an elaborate hail of air bubbles created by diving seabirds. The stately wind and spread their wings as brakes to precisely adjust their position in relation to their prey. These incredible birds hit the freezing water faster than an Olympic diver and have evolved air sacs in their heads and chests to survive those repeated heavy impacts. Underwater the sound was thunderous as the streamlined white torpedoes pierced the surface. I wanted to take a new picture of these stately seabirds…