This angle is one of my favorites for turtle pixtures.
It is often available if you come upon a turtle that is swimming.... and if you can keep up.
When they are not in motion there is really nothing about a turtle that speaks to grace.
But when they are moving through the water, especially when you see them from this angle, they are quite clearly flying.
And.... they are capable of moving along at a much brisker clip than you might imagine that they could.
The Lionfish has a lot of long feather like pectoral and dorsal fins.... quite pretty really.
Those fins flow and float about the fish in tune with the rhythm of the water around them.
They are unafraid of divers and will allow a slow and close approach. However, if they do feel threatened, they will raise these fins in their defense and may move to a protected recess.
Among all those fins are venomous spines. If you are punctured, the instructions, for treatment, are to immerse the affected area in water between 100 and 110 degrees or apply a hot wet compress for 30-90 minutes. This is to denature the toxin and to alleviate the pain.
The wounds are not known to be fatal but are quite painful and will commonly produce swelling and a rash.
In spite of all of this mayhem the flesh of the Lionfish is not poisonous.... in fact, I can tell you from personal experience, it makes quite a nice burger.
I often post pixtures of Juvenille Spotted Drumfish.
I like to call them swimming feathers with eyeballs and gills.
But I thought you might like to see a pixture of that species, all grown up.
You can now wee where the "Spotted" in their name comes from.... as, those spots are not present on the juveniles.
My favorite kind of pixtures are closeups.... whether I am shooting above or below the surface.
As a result of that I usually have my camera setup to shoot close.
I do have the ability to change those settings while I am underwater but it does take a minute.... and in the ever changing fluid world below a pixture opportunity can be fleeting.
All of that is my lead up to saying that something as simple as a school of fish can be a difficult subject for me to capture.
Here is a pretty good (but not great) attempt at a pixture of a school of Smallmouth Grunts.
The aptly named Jewel Urchin.
They have tan to white bodies, with red lines between the plates and in this case white spines.
The dark ball-like structures are reddish brown, unique to this species.... and are used to remove debris.
Oh look, it's Lydia.... playing a little peek-a-boo amongst the Stovepipe Sponges.
They generally grow in solitary clusters of long slender lavendar, brown or tan soft-walled tubes, with cream colored interiors.
They are found on reefs and walls in depths of 50-100ft.
This is the kind of pixture that usually starts out with me thinking that I am photographing the urchin.
But somewhere along the line I will come to realize that the crab, in this case a Nimble Spray Crab, is there too.
Many times that realization does not come until I am looking at the pixture, close up, in post production.
I am thinking that was the case here.... as had I seen the crab when I was still there, I would have refocused to get the crab in the same sharp detail as the urchin.
This is a Pygmy Filefish.... another of the new quests from our Bonaire trip.
They are wee.... only 2-4” in length.
Their coloring is blotched shades of tan, brown and yellow.... but they can change color to match their surroundings.
They like to inhabit shallow sand, rubble and seagrass areas with soft bottoms.
The young in particular will hide themselves in amongst the soft corals.
Which means that photographing them can be a game of hide and seek.
Almost every trip that we have made.... a species or two becomes the special challenge of our trip.
Something that we have not noticed before.... or not seen in abundance.
One of those challenges from our last Bonaire trip was this guy.... which I believe is a Planehead Filefish.
We saw them often but almost always alone.... and swimming deep within the arms of the soft corals that you see here in this pixture.
They are small, typically four to eight inches in length.... but I am thinking that this one was not yet a full grown adult, as he was much smaller than that.
They are mottled shades of gray and brown with an occasional tint of green.
I have written in the past, of my challenges in getting a good pixture of the Banded Butterflyfish that always travel in pairs.
In fact, a number of posts ago I shared a shot that I called a success in that quest.
But like so many things in life, once you have done it once.... other opportunities present themselves and what you have learned can be used to replicate or improve the result.
We often hear tales or see in movies the power of the sea.
I am happy to say that I have not seen it firsthand since my days aboard ship in the Navy.... and even then not often and not at it's very worst.
Here is another reminder of that power from beneath the sea.
It is but one link in the chain that holds in place, a marker buoy for the pier above.
This single link is wider than my chest.
A pair of my favorite subjects.... and healthy Anemone and the Spotted Cleaner Shrimp that lives there.
This might be one of the very best pixtures that I have ever gotten of the Spotted Cleaner Shrimp.
Every once in a while I think the critters decide to give me a break and just pose for the shot they somehow know I want.
A Redlip Blenny doing what they like to do.... sitting on a high point within their terrain and surveying what's going on.
He looks huge in this pixture but in real life he will measure some where between 2.5" and 4.5".
He is named for his distinctive red lips, which you can't really see in this pixture. But if you look closely at the red outline above his eyes, you will be seeing the same shade of red that is on his lips.
