Manta Ray photobombs surfer at a Florida beach, helps him get lucky shot

The ray was about 8 feet wide

‘I was pretty amazed:’ Massive manta ray photobombs surfer at Florida beach

A surfer accidentally captured a lucky shot of a ray doing a backflip at a beach in Florida over the weekend.

Rusty Escandell told Click Orlando News that it happened when he was out on the beach with his son on Sunday and that he was initially just trying to get a picture of a surfer.

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He didn’t notice that the giant manta ray had photobombed his picture until he looked at the photos again later.

Escandell said that this lucky shot came a year after he had regained interest in photography and that this was one of the best shots he’d gotten of a ray.

The ray was about 8 feet wide, according to Escandell.

“I was pretty amazed. I was pretty thankful that I had an f/11 (aperture) so it was somewhat in focus in the background,” Escandell said.

Escandell posted the shot on Facebook and it got dozens of likes, shares and comments and more than 2,000 likes when the Satellite Beach page shared the photo.

Photo bombers, they want all the attention lol

Posted by Rusty Escandell on Sunday, March 14, 2021

About the Author:

Jazmine Otey joined the 10 News team in February 2021.