What is life like beneath the waves? Dong-sik Kim, an underwater documentary director, has been answering this question for almost 40 years by bringing marine life to the screen. And this World Ocean Day, Kim headed underwater again to capture the diverse aquatic life in Jeju.
Jeju is a South Korean island located south of mainland Korea. It is widely known for its natural beauty and has stretches of white sand beaches enriched with black volcanic stone. Around 100 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins are estimated to live in the waters surrounding the island. And under the waves sit Jeju’s breathtakingly vibrant corals. With the water temperature of Jeju seas 1-2 degrees Celsius higher, it makes the island an ideal habitat for a range of creatures.
And so, Kim chose to dive in and explore what remains hidden in Jeju’s pristine waters. The documentary highlights the co-existence of human and marine life and features the island’s famous ‘hanyeo’ (female divers) and its dolphins.
Kim works towards raising awareness about the need to preserve oceans. He went back in the water with Samsung Global Newsroom and using the Galaxy S21 Ultra, brought out true underwater beauty.
Take a look at some fascinating creatures below:
For his shoot, Kim set his camera to wide-angled mode after covering the phone with a waterproof cover. This allowed him to keep his phone safe deep underwater and allowed him the edge to capture active marine beings such as dolphins. He then took close-up shots of coral reefs using the phone’s 8K resolution.