Photo: The Portrait by Magnus Åkerblom-Wiker
Seeing photographers in action always inspires us to go out and shoot more photos! To celebrate the launch of the 500px Directory, we held a Photo Quest with this theme. Your photos gave us a great glimpse behind the scenes of photographers working to capture that perfect shot!
There were so many amazing photos submitted to this Quest, but our favorite had to be Magnus Åkerblom-Wiker’s “The Portrait.”
The lucky winner of this Photo Quest is receiving a great 500px swag pack plus a 1 year Awesome 500px membership.
Read our judge’s thoughts on this photo: This is an amazing underwater shot that not only captured a photographer in action but also a very unusual, good looking model! 🙂
Meet the photographer, Magnus Åkerblom-Wiker: I started out with a manual SLR and a darkroom in my parents’ basement many years ago, but it wasn’t until I started with scuba diving that I really got into shooting. The Swedish climate is not always conducive to underwater photography, so I ended up traveling and I snapped a few shots along the way and that’s how I got into landscape and travel photography. Nowadays, every once in a while, I actually do dedicated trips to take pictures on dry land.
He also gave us the story behind his winning photo: Every year humpback whales gather around the Kingdom of Tonga to give birth and breed, and it’s one of the few places where you are allowed to swim with the whales. We encountered a female who liked to play with people (the locals called her “crazy whale”) and swam up close to us and even bumped into us a couple of times. I took this photo of a fellow photographer during one of these encounters. You can see him trying to swim backwards to get out of the whale’s way while, of course, firmly keeping that camera trigger pressed.
Magnus Åkerblom-Wiker is listed in the 500px Directory. Check out his Services profile on 500px to find out more about his skills and specialties!
Want to boost your photography career? Join the Directory and get discovered by clients looking to hire for their next photography project.
Looking to hire a photographer? Browse Directory photographers by specialty and location here.
Don’t forget to take a look through the submissions by our runners up:
Did you miss this Photo Quest? Take a look and check out the other Photo Quests we have coming up here!
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