What I remember most about this image, is not the subject but what I had to do to get the shot. Diving in Monterey Bay, the temperatures are pretty chilly. This was the 3rd dive of the day, and I had earlier damaged my drysuit seal, so I had to use my wetsuit, which is much less effective at keeping me warm.
I remember having to pull myself down the anchor chain, one hand holding my camera rig and the other pulling me down deeper. The water temperature in the mid 50's, with a pretty strong current sweeping over the pinnacle that we were diving. After a few minutes, I was deep enough to let go of the chain and swim down to the reef to start looking for subjects.
Before I even hit the bottom, I was starting to feel the cold. At about 10-15 minutes, I was shivering almost uncontrollably. The funny thing, usually when I find a subject, I forget about the cold for a little bit while I work on my image, but I remember not finding many subjects this dive so I was mostly just cold and miserable.
At around 30-35 minutes, I found this bright sculpin and shot just a few images before I left to return up the anchor line to the boat. The two dives in my wetsuit were some of my most miserable dives ever, but this was the dive that got me a 1st place image in the competition I was participating in.
