
Marathon resident Daniel Eidsmoe will sacrifice for his art, even if it means a 3 a.m. hike along Coco Plum Beach — and 70 mosquito bites — to capture the right angle of the Milky Way over the Florida Keys’ backcountry. Eidsmoe’s efforts paid off when his long-exposure image captured first place in the “recreation” category of an annual photo contest sponsored by the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
Eidsmoe also won second-place honors in the “at-home” category for a drone photo of his wife flying a kite over a sandbar.

Gabriel Jensen also won first-place honors in the “life” category for his extreme close-up photo of an arrow crab posed in front of a sea urchin.
A self-described “magnification maniac” who calls underwater photography the best hobby on the planet, Jensen scuba dives from land in nearshore waters looking for details most would pass over.
The Fort Lauderdale-based chemist regularly visits the Keys in search of off-the-path locations.

Jensen was practically onshore, swimming along the seawall of an abandoned marina in the Upper Keys the day he nabbed the award-winning photo. The vertical lines of the crab set against the vertical lines of the urchin created an interesting composition, or so said his wife, who works at the Coral Restoration Foundation.
The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries will feature the images in the next edition of its Earth is Blue social media campaign. For more, visit sanctuaries.noaa.gov.