Photographer Patrick Coyne recently captured something stunning near his home in Orange County last week. After a friend tipped him off that there might be some bioluminescence on show, Coyne managed to capture the brightest bioluminescent waves he’d ever seen.
The video was captured at Newport Beach—which Coyne says was still open to the public—one night last week, and it wasn’t a serendipitous accident.
“My buddy @markgirardeau called me letting me know that there was a red tide, which was originally discovered by @visual_burrito earlier that day,” he explains. “It doesn’t always happen but a red tide could indicate some bioluminescence, which is why we went.”
Bioluminescence like this is caused by certain kinds of phytoplankton, which is why an algal bloom (i.e. red tide) can sometimes mean you’ll see the waves light up once the sun sets. So, while maintaining social distance from one another, Coyne and his friends took to the beach in hopes of seeing the ocean light up. They were not disappointed.
Coyne posted the resulting footage to his Instagram account, where it’s received over 30K likes and even attracted the attention of local and national news outlets.
You can see one clip in higher resolution, which the photographer posted to his YouTube channel:
“Last nights bioluminescence in Newport Beach was incredible! So far it’s the brightest I’ve ever seen,” he wrote in the video’s caption. “If you’ve never seen bioluminescence before it’s definitely something you have to see with your own eyes!”
For those who are curious, the video was captured using a Sony a7 III with a Rokinon 35mm Cine DS T1.5 lens at 1/50th, T1.5 and ISO 80,000.
(via ABC 7)
