Capturing the Moment

Peacock Mantis Shrimp Crabs, shrimp, and lobsters can all be big finds for an underwater macro photographer. Some of these crustaceans can give nudibranchs a run for their money when it comes to bold colors. Take this peacock mantis shrimp for example. It has so many shades of colors that it is named after a peacock!     Other crustaceans rely on small size to escape notice. Luckily our local divemaster had a great eye for some of these tiny critters that I would have swam right by. Still others rely on camouflage. This tiny wire coral shrimp was the same exact color of the wire coral until I flashed him with light from my strobe. Even then it would be hard to pick him out unless you zoom way in like this.   Alot of the reefs here are covered in soft coral. This soft coral waves back and forth in the surge and give the reef alot of movement which we don't see in Hawaii. I always think the soft coral would be a great place for creatures to hide but fo...

              Nudibranchs of Puerto Galera   One of the main reasons the Philippines has been so high on our scuba dive radar is the diversity of nudibranchs that can be found in the waters here. Sea slugs that come in every color imaginable and all different shapes and sizes dot the reefs and rocks just offshore. When we told our divemaster, Amil, that we were hoping to see lots of nudibranchs his eyes lit up. Apparently Puerto Galera is a nudibranch lovers paradise. Nembrotha chamerlaini Pseudoceros bifurcus   13 dives and we saw nudibranchs on every dive! Some were absolutely tiny and needed a very trained eye to see, even if someone was pointing right towards them. Others caught the eye with their wild colors making them stand out.    Some of the nudibranchs were similar to those we have in Hawaii like these two pictured here. But small differences show how the isolation in Hawaii ...

  Oh man. We had signed up for a 2 dive boat trip deep into the heart of Komodo National Park, home of big fish sightings and walls of beautiful coral gardens. This trip would not disappoint. Our first dive was a wall dive with immense amounts of beautiful, healthy, vibrant coral. There was no bare patch of rock or sand. Every place that hard or soft coral could attach it had. As my friend Nate said when he saw this picture, it's "coral growing on coral growing on coral." This does give smaller creatures alot of places to hide but we still spotted some nudibranchs and a couple of beautiful leaf scorpionfish like the white one above.   Our second dive was all about the mantas. We could actually see them from the boat as we counted down our hour surface interval between dives. All of us were just itching to get back in the water to see them close up. We had no idea yet just how close we would get! The current at this site, called Manta Point, is very strong. It...