Spotlight on Photography: Peekaboo With a Philippines Clownfish
Nurul Yazid reveals an underwater world few get to see up close in Anilao, Philippines.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn to the ocean— learning to swim at 3, snorkeling by 5 and dreaming of becoming a dolphin trainer. After a stint in the corporate world, I became a dive instructor and later fell in love with underwater photography.
At first I was what you would call a hard-core hobbyist, always desperate to get back in the sea with my camera. But the ocean’s wonders proved too beautiful to keep to myself, so I began shooting professionally.
While a lot of my peers may look down on photographing clownfish because of how common they are, I couldn’t resist shooting this one in Anilao, a popular dive spot in the Philippines, south of Manila, while vacationing with friends in 2014. I was drawn to the color contrast: the green anemone with the reddish clownfish. Though anemones sting, clownfish are immune to their venom. This protection allows clownfish to live safely among the anemones’ tentacles.
Today my work has been featured in numerous magazines and websites. From swimming with sharks in the Bahamas to viewing the acrobatics of manta rays in Indonesia, I strive to tell compelling stories through my photography.
Nurul Yazid is a professional underwater photographer based out of Bali, Indonesia, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is known for any shoots in water—be it a swimming pool, lake, river and, of course, the ocean.
You may also be interested in...
Cairo Hums Her Name: The Eternal Voice of Umm Kulthum
The late singer known as Kawkab al-Sharq—the Star of the East—was a national treasure of Egypt who lives in history books, diasporic memory and musical reinvention.
Artichokes to Ricotta: How Arab Rule Changed Sicilian Cuisine
Food
The cultivation methods, crops and dishes that Arabs introduced in Sicily not only survive but thrive today through foods that are integral and widely celebrated.
Stratford to Jordan: Shakespeare’s Echoes of the Arab World
Arts
History
Shakespeare’s works are woven into the cultural fabric of the Arab world, but so, too, were his plays shaped in part by Islamic storytelling traditions and political realities of his day.