Objective Description
Yellow Jellies by Ciemon Frank Caballes is an underwater photo of a snorkeler surrounded by jellyfish. The photo was taken in Jellyfish Lake on Eil Malk. The photographer took the shot near the surface of the water during the day in the natural light. The snorkeler, a woman, is the position in the center of the photo. She has brown hair and is wearing a black outfit with blue flippers. The snorkeler is wearing a mask and is looking at the camera.
The woman is shown floating amidst a large population of yellow jellyfish which comprise most of the photos. The jellyfish has a circular shape and are shown flowing in different directions. Most of them are at a distance from the camera, except for one jellyfish in the top left corner. The woman is holding some device, possibly a camera, in her left hand. Her skin is very pale. Another figure is seen in the background, but it is unclear what or who it is.
The water in the photo is green and gets darker at the bottom of the image. The bottom of the lake is not visible. The photo is distorted at the corners due to a wide field of view, which suggests that Caballes used a wide-angle lens.
Subjective Description
A National Geographic Photo of the Day, Yellow Jellies by Ciemon Frank Caballes is a breathtaking underwater photo of a snorkeler floating amidst hundreds of beautiful golden jellyfish. The photo was taken at the edge of the water surface in the natural light. In the center of the photo, we see a young woman wearing a mask and a black snorkeler outfit. The photographer positioned her in such a way as to explore the dynamic nature of diagonals: her legs are closer to the bottom left corner of the image, and her head is closer to the top right corner. The woman’s hair has the color of dark chocolate and is flowing in the other direction.
The pose of the woman seems effortless and dynamic, but it is likely she was deliberately positioned in such a way to achieve a good composition. There is no doubt that it took the photographer many attempts to achieve this shot. All around the woman, there are countless jellyfish flowing sporadically. The photo color palette is warm and is dominated by the warm yellow color of jellyfish and olive color of the water. Against the green background of water, the shape of the golden jellyfish makes them look almost like flowers. The reflective nature of jellyfish allows them to bounce back the light coming from above, and as a result, they look like they are shining from the insight.
This gives the photo a dreamy quality as if the woman is flowing amidst dozens of tiny suns. The fantasy-like atmosphere is further emphasized by the fact that the photo has no edges: there is a reflective water surface on top, the seemingly bottomless lake at the bottom, and countless jellyfish in either direction. The photo has a very wide field of view, to the point of distortion at the corners, which suggests the photographer used a wide-angle lens. Such an all-encompassing view helps emphasize the scale of the scene and takes the viewer’s breath away. In his photo, Ciemon Frank Caballes succeeded in capturing a dreamy, fantasy-like atmosphere of the scene.