Spotted Fabri

On Halloween night, We dove into the Atlantic and met the ocean’s glowing heart.

Our underwater lights illuminating the whole scene. Plenty of little microorganisms of the black water.

It was Halloween night. While the world celebrated under noise, plastic and lights. We stepped into something quieter, the Atlantic Ocean after dark. The real mystery lives there, where light is alive and silence speaks.

Polichaetes and lanterns showing around

Beside me was Marc , my mentor in this little but infinite world, a man who reads the ocean like a book, and Damian another ocean lover and tremendous photografer. Together we set out to explore a place that belongs not to people, but to the tides, the moon, and the bioluminescent plankton that turn darkness into a living galaxy.

There’s something both spooky and sacred about a night dive.
You surrender. You wait for the ocean to decide what to show you.

The sea was calm, almost flat. We swam hundreds of meters from shore, guided only by our lights and by instinct. Around us, pinpoints of light suspended like stars, plankton glowing with bioluminescence. Every movement of a fin created new constellations.

For more than two hours we floated through what felt like the sky turned upside down. The Atlantic currents bring travelers from distant worlds: transparent drifters, drifting embryos, delicate monsters. Some were no larger than a grain of sand, yet shone brighter than stars.

The young amberjack spiraling a freediving buoy

This time the Macro lens was not with me. At first, I regretted it. Then I realized the gift: to stop chasing details and see the bigger picture — the rhythm, the glow, the pulse of a living ocean.

We didn’t find the massive plankton bloom divers sometimes speak of, but the sea still provided intimate scenes of life: an octopus blended with volcanic rock like a folded thought; a larvae of a moray slid through the water column as if reading the shoreline; shrimp and crabs flashed like underwater punctuation marks. Sea slugs mating and showcasing ink and Needle fishes and balaos watching us dangerously. Amberjacks and beautiful polychaetes

When we were closer to the shore i had two moments that took my breath away.

First, a mantellina (Gymnura altavela) a ray the size of a dining table, lay motionless between stones, its patterned skin mapping the floor into quiet geometry. Incredible disguise

But after this jewel hidden, the highlight of them all.....

The Moment ...

The moment I had been waiting for without knowing it: a seahorse. My first ever. This time A Hippocampus algiricus

I have touched three oceans and crossed countless seas, but I had never seen one in the wild. There it was, small, patient, and impossibly composed, clinging. It felt that was just sliding through the sea floor just vibing you know?

It didn’t flee. It didn’t hide. It simply existed. Feeding slowly, turning its head like a tiny philosopher. In that instant I understood why seahorses capture the imagination: their defense is not speed or hiding, but an almost disarming beauty.

Inside my mask, I smiled, screamed and felt small in the best way. The ocean had offered me a private revelation, an intimate, almost sacred introduction to a creature I had only ever seen in books and dreams.

Coming Up

After two and a half hours we surfaced under a canopy of stars. The water was black glass. The island slept. We thanked the sea for its generosity.

These nocturnal animals, many living just beneath the sand near the shore, go unnoticed by most beachgoers. They are the architects of the night — fragile, vital, and often hidden by our daytime assumptions. Next time you walk along the coast, remember that the shore is more crowded than you think.

That night in the Canary Islands did more than provide images for my portfolio. It reminded me that the ocean is a teacher: patient, surprising, and deeply generous. Sometimes it doesn’t give you what you think you want. It gives you what you need: awe...

BU!

Behind the Lens

This story is part of Spotted Fabri, my visual journal exploring the beauty, mystery, and fragility of our oceans. Through underwater photography and storytelling, I aim to bring the ocean closer to you, inspire curiosity, and celebrate the creatures and landscapes that depend on its light and life. All the images are from SpottedFabri

May the ocean be with you.
If you liked this halloween special i invite you to follow me on Instagram, linkedin or stay tuned for the next exploration...