Jacques de Vos has kindly posted this stunning image of orcas (Orcinus orca) onto the Wetpixel Facebook group. It was shot during one of his Arctic Freediving Expeditions in early November 2016 a few hours from Tromsø, Norway while freediving. Jacques describes how the images was captured:

“We had this group of orcas pass right in front of us. This was shot with a 15mm fisheye and it has not been cropped so it gives you an idea of how close they were.”

He was using a Canon 5D Mark IV with a 15mm fisheye lens, housed in an Ikelite housing with no strobes. Camera settings were 1/160s @ f/4.5 and ISO3200.

When asked what a South African was doing above the Arctic Circle, Jacques replied: “Had to go where the orca was (and where I could get in the water with them) and the Arctic it was!”

Jacques work has recently been featured in a story about him and free diving with orcas on Red Bull’s Adventure site.