Jan 2025
Photography night with nature photographer Melanie Müller: “Between mantas & manatees – photographing megafauna under water”
As an accompanying program to the special exhibition “European Nature Photographer of the Year 2024”, I will be a guest at the German Horse Museum on Thursday, February 6, 2025 and talk about my encounters with sea creatures in their natural habitat, providing the audience with insights into the fascinating world beneath the surface.
When: February 06, 2025 at 7.30 pm // Admission from 6.00 pm
Entrance fee: 12,- € per person (including museum admission), reduced for DPM members: 8,- € per person
Where: German Horse Museum, Holzmarkt 9, Verden
Seat reservation required under Tel: 04231/807140
Nov 2024
Exciting news: Vital Impacts Print Sale
Thrilled to reveal that my photo Yin Yang is part of the 2024 Vital Impacts Annual Print Sale Collection.
Proceeds from this year’s collection of breathtaking fine-art photographs will benefit the Convening Group of Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon (COICA). They represent and support 511 indigenous communities in the 9 countries of the Amazon Basin, working to protect and preserve this critical ecosystem.
I invite you to explore and share the awe-inspiring imagery of my fellow photographers renowned for their dedication to the planet.
October 2024
Discovering Neshun
During my first trip to Maldives in 2023, I had the wonderful opportunity to swim with wild reef manta rays for the first time. These spectacular animals cast their spell on me the second I saw them and I shot hundreds of photos.
Shortly after the trip, I sent some ID photos (documentary-style belly shots of the rays) to Manta Trust, a UK-based charity organization that coordinates global manta and devil ray research and conservation efforts. They would add the photos to their MantaBase, a database that contains data on over 10,000 individual reef and oceanic manta rays. Their goal is to make the animals’ data accessible to manta scientists and the general public around the world.
Two of the photos from that trip are among my all-time favourites, by the way: “Dancer” is hanging as life-sized print in my living room. And even more exciting: “Yin Yang” made the Top10 list of the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 (Underwater Category)! I am so happy and proud that my photo made it so far and was recognized by a jury of professional, renowned photographers.
When the results from Manta Trust came in, it turned out that the manta ray hanging in my living room, the “dancer”, the “Yang” in Yin Yang, had never been identified before! So, MantaTrust gave me the honour to propose a name for the juvenile female. The “barrell roll” feeding motion and my print in mind, I asked some Maldivian friends what “Dancing” or “Dancer” would be in Dhivehi, the Maldivian language. They translated it to “neshun”. So, that is what I suggested to MantaTrust. Naming this manta ray that already meant so much to me was a real full-circle moment.
Neshun, when I saw and photographed you in December 2023, I felt it was a very special moment. But I had not the slightest idea of all the wonderful, incredible things that would unfold from that encounter. You have changed my life and you keep on giving… Thank you.
There are more exciting news regarding my photo Yin Yang: It’s gonna be part of the 2024 Vital Impacts Annual Print Sale Collection! More on this soon.
Learn how to support MantaTrust.
March 2024
Article published in Revista Endemkia
For the first time ever in the Dominican Republic, three manatees of the endangered subspecies Trichechus manatus manatus were reintroduced into the wild after three to eight years in captivity. Although they adapted well to living in the wild at first, longterm success (or failure) of the project would highly depend on the river and seaside communities.
Learn more about this project with FUNDEMAR
(Fundación Dominicana de Estudios Marinos)
Read Melanie’s article in Revista Endemika (March 2024, Spanish)
“The Antillean Manatee – Getting to know an endangered marine mammal and the actions for its conservation”
Melanie Müller 