Yes, I used a simulated HDR effect on the image. The pic was taken with my mobile, and the effect was also applied with an app on the mobile.
I have a funny story from here. I decided to snorkel and on the Maldives you don't need to take a boat out to do that, as you are basically living on the reef. So, I rented the gear, swam out in the morning from the beach to the edge of the reef, from where it's just a huge drop down to the unknown. The water being so clear, you can still see maybe 20 meters or more down to the abyss. There were two other people snorkeling with me, it was really great, I was mesmerized by the view and swam around for maybe an hour.
But like most people, the unknown makes me a little edgy, I mean, OK true snorkeling wasn't new to me, as I had done so in Brazil and 3 times before at the Great Barrier Reef. So I was a bit used to going "wtf is that!?" into my snorkel. Went back to the beach, to work on the tan, but couldn't stop thinking about the view there at the edge of the reef. Went for a swim (not snorkeling) and then I saw a Crown jellyfish just a few feet from me, huge, decided of course to get out of the water. I just now read about them, and it seems they only live very deep in the sea, so maybe this one was dying, though it was definitely moving by itself trying to get back into the open ocean.
Back to the Maldives, so I worked on my tan a bit more, then during lunch time I couldn't resist and decided to go back out to the reef to snorkel. There was nobody else in the water, just me. I swam/navigated between the coral to get to the edge of the reef. I was there maybe 20 minutes, when I saw it. And I could see it already from afar, it was swimming in my direction, it was a reef shark, maybe 4ft, or 120cm long, I did not feel comfortable, and without letting it get any closer I turned around and started snorkeling/swimming back to shore. Your mind really goes on overdrive, and you imagine all the worst case scenarios, so I looked back to see if it was following me, but I couldn't see because my fins were creating bubbles (or maybe I was farting in panic), so I needed to turn by body so I could see behind me. I didn't have the chance to see anything, as I got seawater in my snorkel tube (duh, turned too much, and the tube went under the surface), so my death-scene was set, I tried to spit out the water through the tube, meanwhile my heart was racing and I probably swam like a drowning person "swims". And it gets worse, I start to think the shark probably detects my elevated heartbeat and can see and hear that I'm moving like wounded animal=easy pray panic+1. Obviously I made it to shore, right in front of the restaurant by the beach, and people were looking at me like "what happened?" nobody of course said anything. I had seawater in my nose, sand all over the place but I tried to keep my cool and composure on the beach. I cleaned my gear right there, and calmly walked past the restaurant
Yeah, I was truly afraid. Maybe it would have been a different scenario, had there been others with me in the water, as bait you know This is how it looked like, the person who shot this video, has been in the same spot as me.
http://youtu.be/iLJTL9np7H8
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