Bioluminescent dinoflagellates are a type of plankton.
During the day, the bioluminescence is a red/pinkish tide floating at the surface.
At night time, the bioluminescent plankton gave off a neon blue glow. The optimal time for viewing is around new moons when there is no moonlight reflecting on the water.
Percy shot over the course of two nights while the phenomenon was occurring.
Percy’s fascination with nature photography started when he went to see the aurora borealis in the Arctic circle of Norway. The first night he was captivated and it became an obsession every year to go up and photograph it.
The photographic conditions of the aurora borealis and bioluminescence are very similar.
‘The ring of bioluminescence really looks like a galaxy and the ocean a universe,’ Percy says. ‘I hiked up to the lighthouse to get a higher perspective shot of the shoreline where waves were crashing, but as I got there I saw this sparkling ring in the darker side of the headland.’
A friend of Percy’s, Elsi Hartikka, also watched the event unfold. With her feet standing in the sand at Palm Beach, she noticed tiny glowing particles wash up on shore.
Percy says: ‘It’s impossible not to feel like a child again, playing with nature – discovering. It really glows an incredible electric blue colour that ignites your wanderlust.’
