Happy Accidents

It goes without saying that no matter how prepared we are as nature photographers, luck plays a huge role in our success (or lack thereof). And my favourite shot of my December 2024 SoCal trip was 1000% percent pure luck. While wandering aimlessly on the beach just before sunset my first night there, I noticed a couple of quarter-sized bubbles pop up from the sand in between waves. I assumed they were just sand bubbles but something told me to train my lens on one anyway. I had my Z 180-600mm on so it was a long lens shot from around 10 or so feet away and I didn’t think much of it. Later that night as I was reviewing my images I noticed something remarkable: there was an unidentified organism inside the bubble!

I reached out to a couple of marine biologists and visited to the Back Bay Science Centre to try to identify what it was and so far the most plausible theory is that it’s a comb jelly that inadvertently got trapped in the bubble but the jury is still out so if you know what this is, I’d love to hear from you! This was one of those once-in-a-lifetime kinda happy accidents that really encapsulates the magic of nature photography. The odds of capturing this creature in a tiny bubble that existed for less than a minute between wave sets have to be astronomical!