WAI HOE MOK
Dugong Dream

I was in Coron, Philippines to photograph the very shy but incredibly adorable dugong. There were about 40 dugongs living in the area, where seagrass is abundant, however, there was only 1 dugong that allowed scuba divers to come near. This dugong displayed a repetitive feeding pattern, he would graze the seagrass for exactly 5 minutes before ascending to the surface to take a short breath before descending to graze again.

I waited in mid-water the dugong to finish grazing and when he darted to the surface, I swam as hard as I could to be alongside him and took this image when it was about to break the surface. The image was shot from an angle that captured the reflection of the dugong from the water surface. The sky was optically captured by the fish-eye lens in a phenomenal called the Snell’s window.

Author
Mok is a multi-award-winning photographer who specialises in underwater photography. He has been placed in photography competitions, such as Ocean Geographic Photos of the Year, Sony World Photography Award and Our World Underwater, with his most notable accolade being the Master of Ocean Geographic Competition Wyland Award. His images have appeared in NatGeo online, Ocean Geographic, with a special feature of "OGX Emerging Pro Wildlife Photographer". In 2018, Mok was named Singapore Nature Photographer of the Year.

Website
www.mokwaihoe.com

Instagram
@mokwaihoe2001

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