Zoo-expedition: Out of the Blue

Striking Photography of Jellyfish Lighting up the Darkness of their Tank

Student photographer Berdieke van Diesen has managed to capture some of the beauty of the wild within the walls of a tank in a zoo, in the Netherlands. ‘I saw this beautiful tank full of jellyfish,’ she told The Plus. ‘I loved the movements of these beautiful creatures, and the idea of `Out of the Blue´ popped into my head.’

The pictures were taken with a Canon 700D, and 55-250 IS lens. ‘I always try to find things to photograph that most people see as common,’ Berdieke explained to us. She uses a mixture of macro or landscape shots to bring out what is special in the most ordinary, regular scenes. We dove into the blue with Berdieke:

The Plus: Was it difficult to take these kinds of shots in a zoo?
Berdieke v. Diesen: Well, the hardest thing was to photograph through really thick glass. These jellyfish were in a glass tank and it was very hard to take pictures without a reflection. In glass you mostly see the reflection, and I really didn’t want that. I wanted it to look very natural and I think it turned out great.

TP: As a student, how would you say your style is developing?
BvD: I’m trying as many styles as I can. I do that because I want to show that I can do more than one thing. But you will always recognise my work. I use a lot of details. For example if I’m photographing a bird, I want the feathers to be very sharp or really close up. Because it’s not the same as when you look with just your eyes.

TP: What exciting things are you working on now?
BvD: I’m working on a new school project that I hope will be online soon. It will be a photo series and a short film about how art became my way of living. Also I’ve got some photo manipulations of photos from around 1914, which I retouched. I placed the people in surrealistic backgrounds.