A happy 2024 to all followers and readers, may you enjoy the Ocean the coming year in one form or another! This is just a quick post as I have neglected this blog a bit (I have posted these photos on instagram last year though). It is a completely battered Aequorea forskalia at the end of a bloom in September. The images look a bit like oil paintings to me!
Earlier last year I also took some macro shots of another Aequorea species (perhaps A. victoria but these animals are not easy to identify in the field), below two shots showing the mouth (‘manubrium’).
On the same snorkel I also pointed my macrolens at blue jellyfish Cyanea lamarckii; it was fun to capture more detail, although ideally I’d like to capture detail AND the whole animal…. Maybe more luck with a new (or rather secondhand) wide angle lens this year – I cannot wait for the weather to improve and to go back into the water! More posts to follow soon I hope.
We met up with friends in Anglesey (Cymru/Wales) last week. The weather was beautiful, but the viz was milky and the rock pools quite bare. However, there were some interesting animals to see in the pools on the upper shore: rafts of springtails (Anurida maritima). These are tiny but fascinating animals that hide in crevices or under seaweed at high tide but that live in groups on the water surface when it is still. This is helped by bristles that make them highly hydrophobic, a circatidal rhythm and pheromones that allow them to aggregate. Springtails are extremely abundant and important in terrestrial ecosystems but have made a home in the sea as well (and fun fact: although they have six legs, they are not insects). Anurida scavenge on dead animals but themselves fall prey to mites. This tiny raft (the larger springtails are only 3mm) houses two species: a Red Snout Mite (Neomolgus littoralis) a Bdella species (thanks for ID Matthew Shepherd!) and several smaller Halotydeus hydrodomus. The raft in the photo is about the size of a stamp but there is quite a lot going on!
These photos were taken with the 60mm macro lens and the Raynox 250D macroadapter and a cygnustech diffuser (dipping into the water).
I recently bought (2ndhand) scuba gear and did a refresher dive; with the nice weather this week it was high time to get back under the waves and take some photos! I dived Thu/Fri/Sat at the main local shoredive site ‘Silver Steps‘. I went in by myself, but with a maximum depth of around 10 meters and good conditions this is not risky. The dives did not disappoint, the viz was excellent! Although I spotted cuttlefish every dive, I still opted for the macro lens, as I suspected I could not get great shots of them with my fisheye lens at 1.5 meter distance (I might have been wrong!). Instead of heading out to sea as some divers do, I always stick to the gullies by the rocks, diving below the kelp to see what happens beneath the rocky overhangs. There are three usual suspects hiding there, each with a very different personality. First, Leopard Spotted Gobies (Thorogobius ephippiatus) inhabit cracks in the rocks and are quite shy:
Second, Tompot Blennies (Parablennius gattorugine) are extremely inquisitive, often coming very close to check out what is going on in front of their domain:
Third, Black-face Blennies (which are not true blennies but triple fins) that only ever live under overhangs, usually head-down. I did not see males in breeding colours (black face, yellow body) but this colour form is even prettier I think:
When inspecting the rock walls carpeted in sponges, seasquirts, algae, worms and other things, I kept my eyes out for nudibranchs. Apart from a tiny crested aeolis, I spotted a good number of Discodoris rosi, busy mating and laying eggs. This species has only been observed in the UK for a decade or so but the population now is booming, with many reports coming in from all over Cornwall:
All in all a great enjoyable three dives! Silvery schools of sandeels and sprat/herring, many wrasse, cuttlefish, small and very big lobsters and a greater pipefish were also spotted. Unfortunately the weather has made a turn for the worse this week, however, there are still a few diveable months left this year…
A trip to one of our favourite places today: Kynance Cove on the Lizard Peninsula. The weather was such that snorkeling was a big no, but after some wind and rain, luckily the sun came out for a bit (which it should, it is July!). I took some macro shots of the rocks at low tide using my new Cygnustech diffuser. This contraption makes the flash light much less harsh, and is pretty much essential when taking (non-natural light) macro shots. This is one of the best diffusers out there and I can highly recommended it (are plenty of reviews are available online). Some of the shots were taken with the Raynox DCR-250 macro attachment in front of the macro lens for a little bit of extra magnification.
Anyway, there is not a lot of animal diversity on this battered coast of green and red serpentine rock: barnacles, dog whelks, mussels and limpets mainly. Above a selection of photos highlighting some small Dog Whelks (Nucella lapillus). This predatory species can come in many more colour varieties than we found today (see here for example). The limpets are either the Common Limpet (Patella vulgata) or the Blackfooted Limpet (P. depressa); you need to be able to see the animal to be sure. The barnacles are Montagu’s Stellate Barnacles (Chthamalus montagui) (I might have this wrong; I must confess I never really gave barnacles the attention they deserve). Not too spectacular but you gotta try something when you cannot take photos underwater!
When the viz is bad, I take my macrolens (sometimes with the Nauticam CMC-1 wetlens for a bit of extra magnification) out to the pools. Sometimes I stick to the surface of rocks and seaweeds (to look for stalked jellyfish for instance), but other times I turn over rocks under water to see what hides beneath. Quite a lot! There are larger animals, such as Topknots and different types of crabs (and Worm pipefish as pictured here) but mainly they are quite small (around a centimetre or even less). See the selection below (Tricolia, Bittium and Limacia were not from under rocks but I had to make the grid fit!).
Two days after the last post I went back to my usual spot, fisheyelens on the camera. After a little recce it was obvious that the water was too milky, so I went back to the car and changed to the macrolens. It was overcast and the water was chilly. I’d seen some stalked jellyfish (see this great resource stauromedusae UK) the last time. Of course, when you are specifically looking for something you don’t find it, but in the end I noticed a Spotted kaleidoscope jellyfish Haliclystus octoradiatus, the most common species around here. I still struggle with my strobe, so all photos were riddled with backscatter. I could remove most of that in Photoshop luckily, but it is frustrating, especially as I had a run diving last year when I had no such issues at all. I encountered a 15 cm or so Longspined scorpion fish Taurulus bubalis as well. I cropped the shot and could put some colour back in using Windows Photos. Hope to go back over the weekend.
This was the year I switched from my trusted Canon G16 compact camera (with wetlenses) to a mirrorless Olympus OM-D E-M5 II (with ‘actual’ lenses). Throwing money at things is not necessarily a guarantee for improvement, but it definitely helps! The shot above (from this post) was commended at the 2019 Falmouth Underwater Film Festival. This was made using the few times I went out with the mzuiko fisheye lens and is shot using natural light. (For some more natural light wide angle shots taken snorkelling on the north coast see this post.) I mostly used the mzuiko 60mm macrolens in combination with my strobe. The weather at the start of the year was so foul I initially used it abovewater during rockpooling. The shot below of a Flat periwinkle is quite simple but one of my favourites ‘topside’, together with the shot of the two Shore crabs: Below are some favourite underwater macro shots (the best pics I also post on instagram). Macrophotography I find easier, as the camera settings remain quite invariable (small aperture with a short shutterspeed because of the flash) and the composition is often (but definitely not always!) simpler compared to shots of say an entire rockpool. First some taken snorkeling in rockpools. The first is a Chink shell on Bushy rainbow wrack. The iridescent nature of the seaweeds means it is bright blue or purple viewed from one direction, but a dull brown from the other. If you get it right, it makes a very striking background and it is definitely a subject I want to explore more. After that, detail of the tip of a Spiny starfish, a European cowrie and a pill isopod. Below some macroshots taken while (shore)diving off Silver Steps in Falmouth. A Blackfaced blenny, a Leopardspotted goby and a Devonshire cupcoral. Many more photos of course if you scroll down. I have now also invested in a new strobe and new strobe arms. Having two strobes will allow me to take wide angle photos without depending on (dim) natural light, for instance whilst diving. My second strobe is manual so I can ramp up the strobe power if needed for macro too. I still struggle with positioning even a single strobe, so having two will be frustrating in the beginning I am sure. I am hopeful this new investment will pay off though. As for the blog, I have updated the links page. It is high time I post an update on the tank. I have not been diving much but hopefully next year I can collect some new species of anemones for it (and of course take photos, although the two activities are pretty much mutually exclusive). My new years resolution will be to get in the water more. I wish all blog readers a happy and healthy 2020!
The tide was bad (i.e. low and too early to catch it on time), the water was cold and it was very windy but it was good to go for a dip this morning. I now have a different strobe arm which makes it easier to position my strobe, which has often been tricky. Time for some macro practice. The photos are not that special but I hope interesting enough for you blog readers! Above a Peacock worm Sabella pavonina sticking out of an abandoned piddock hole. Below a common Hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus, a Grey chiton Lepidochitona cinerea, a very small Dahlia anemone Urticina felina (note the warty, adhesive column) and some Daisy anemones Cereus pedunculatus.
It has been a while since exploring the rockpools, as the weather has been pretty horrific. However, I had a good go last week and this weekend. Although quite bleak, there was no wind and no rain. The water is getting down to 11 degrees probably (I have not measured it), so pretty chilly. There are quite some solarpowered seaslugs Elysia viridis on the Codium seaweed but I did not manage to get any good photos. In fact, I am still struggling a lot just getting the strobe to properly light up what I am aiming to photograph. A bit frustrating but that is why I keep practicing. Above a pill isopod, probably Cymodoce truncata (with the fringing hair on the rear uropods indicating it is a male). Below, a tiny Gem anemone Aulactinia verrucosa. There are a lot of small Daisy anemones Cereus pedunculatus amidst the Coral weed, they look brownish but when you zoom in there is some blue as well. Finally, a Netted dogwhelk Tritia reticulata, which are very common and active in the rockpools. Cold but always nice to be in the water. Luckily I emerged right on time when I saw my Sainsbury’s bag with glasses, car keys and phone drifting away due to the incoming tide!
Some photos from Last Sunday at Castle Beach in Falmouth. Above, the periwinkle Littorina littorea, which aggregrates in great numbers on the upper shore. Below, three echinoderm cousins: a Cushion star Asterina gibbosa and a little Sea cucumber Pawsonia saxicola with a Brittle star in the background. It was the first time I saw this beautiful colour variant of the Risso’s or Furrowed crab Risso pilipes. More common is the very similar Montagu’s crab Risso hydrophilus, there are usually 5-10 individuals under a single rock. The small ones especially come in a range of colours that make them excellently camouflaged against the pebbles. Next a juvenile Shanny Lipophrys pholis, a detail of a Corkwing wrasse (I could pick it up, that is how low the tide was) and a shot of the beach, showing the versatility of the mzuiko 60mm lens.
An Bollenessor 