Macro Rockpooling

Posted on by under anemones, cnidarians, crustaceans, echinoderms, Macro, molluscs, photography, sponges, tunicates, worms
I realised I had not posted (much) about this year’s rockpool snorkels so I am taking the opportunity to post a ‘picdump’ with a whole array of tiny species. These photos were taken with a macrolens, and for most a wetlens was used for even greater magnification. Above the White Tortoiseshell Limpet Tectura virginea, a tiny species living on calcified red seaweed. I have added species names to the photos below.

Macro-Wide Angle (on land)

Posted on by under fish, fluorescence, Macro, molluscs, wide angle

I really like macrophotography and I really like wide angle photography, but what I REALLY like is macro-wide angle photography! Examples of that underwater can be seen in previous posts (e.g. here and here) but this year I also bought a normal ‘topside’ lens for this purpose: the kuangren k42. It is a difficult lens to use: it is manual focus and it is very (VERY) dark. The first few times trying it out I was almost ready to give it up – that is how hard it was to get a usable photo out of it. With a lot of perseverance I narrowed down the combination of camera and lens settings but there is a lot of practice to be done next year. (Ideally I’d also have two flashes on bendy arms instead one mounted on top of the camera to properly light the subject.) Anyway, above a White Italian Snail which has a bunch of other common names so the Latin one is always best: Theba pisana. It is not all in focus (the eyestalks are not a friend of DoF) but the perspective does manage to show both the (small) animal and its habitat which is otherwise impossible to do. I have also tried the lens a bit closer to the water, some examples below. I have since purchased another kuangren lens and hope to also experiment with – and blog about – that next year!

Some Silver Steps Molluscs

Posted on by under diving, molluscs, shells
After posting about the fish and crustaceans of my local dive site Silver Steps in Falmouth, it is time to give molluscs some love! The photos in this post were all taken at 5-10 meter depth at a gravelly bottom this year. Above (and at the end) the Turban Topshell (Gibbula magus) which is common subtidally. However, this was the first time I noticed that they have pretty sky-blue eyes! It is one of my challenges to take a pic of it with both eyes in the frame next year. Below, another favourite species of mine: the Pheasant Shell (Tricolia picta, previously P. pullus). This was a large individual (close to a centimetre?) with a candy cane striped pattern that I’d never seen before.
Next up a juvenile Dog Whelk (Nucella lapillus) on top of a Saddle Oyster and the Common Keyhole Limpet (Diodora graeca). The latter might be called ‘common’ but I do not see it very often. Going from the Gastropods to a Bivalve: a King Scallop (Pecten maximus) with its many eyes and a Cephalopod: the Common Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). This was a very large individual covered in many small white lesions, probably near the end of its life. It was fine in my presence and let me take some photos. It is sometimes strange to think that these intelligent creatures are more closely related to a clam than to a fish! Some bonus photos at the end.

Seagrass Macro

Posted on by under anemones, bryozoans, eelgrass, Flushing, Macro, molluscs, mzuiko60mm, nudibranchs, photography, tunicates
Polycera quadrilineata

I had a couple of good snorkels at the end of summer in the seagrass beds off my local beach in Flushing. The water at the end of summer is warm enough to go without wetsuit – I just had a weightbelt to let me sink down on the sand at low tide, no fins needed. I managed to do what I normally find very difficult: spot nudibranchs! Mainly one of the more common species, Polycera quadrilineata, but that was fine by me, as they are very beautiful, especially the black colour morph pictured above. I spotted one other species, the egg-eating Favorinus branchialis (with its own eggs also visible). Not great photos, but in my defense they are very small!

Shelled molluscs are easier to find. Below 1) the ubiquitous Grey Topshell Steromphala cinerarea, 2) the Grooved Topshell Jujubinus striatus and 3) the tiny Rissoa membranacea (faecal pellets on show, even within the shell). The latter two species are strongly associated with seagrass.

Some assorted macro photos below and at the end a view at a very low tide of the Flushing seagrass site this October.

The Crack pt. 1

Posted on by under crustaceans, diving, EMWL, fish, Silver Steps
At my local shoredive site Silver Steps here in Falmouth, there is a crack in the rocks, maybe three meters long and not very deep, that is home to an array of interesting species. I have posted pics from this spot before, for instance that of a big conger eel (which has since left it’s hidey-hole, perhaps it swam off to reproduce and die in the Mid-Atlantic?). Anyway, I visited again this week and tried close-up shots with my macrowide angle probe lens. The prawns are much bigger here in the rock pools, but I am not sure if they are Paleamon serratus or P. elegans, as this requires a closer look at the serrations on the rostrum. Regardless of species name, they are stunningly beautiful animals with their blue and yellow legs and black-striped carapace.

Some more pics below (notice that in some another animal is lurking in the background!). Some species are easier to photograph than others, clingfish are very shy for instance. Anyway, there are some more ideas I have, for instance trying to capture multiple species in one frame and post about them in ‘The Crack pt2.’!

Moody Macro

Posted on by under crustaceans, fish, Flushing, Macro, mzuiko60mm, rock pooling
A quick post with some finds from a recent walk on the shores of Flushing, specifically above-water (‘topside’) macro shots with a diffuser. This always leads to my subjects turning out with subdued grey and brown tones, but that is OK. A velvet crab, the amphipod Cymodoce truncata (looks a bit like a trilobite!), a worm pipefish covered in a film of water with some more shots (with descriptions) at the end.

life on a chain

Posted on by under buoys, crustaceans, molluscs

The rain has been hammering down and I am in accute underwater withdrawal… Just a bit of the ole bloggin then! These are some pictures from April, when the phytoplankton had not kicked in and the water was still quite blue. Out of curiousity I swam out to the marker buoys off Castle Beach in Falmouth to see if there was anything interesting growing on them. There was! Lots of mussels, including on the chain going down to the bottom (10ish meters deep). I took my fisheye lens and after much adjusting of strobes (holding the housing sideways for portrait mode, and also up, meaning that the lower strobe needed to be pulled back) I got the nice shot above. Mussels are not a favourite of underwaterphotographers (this is an understatement!) but they are beautiful upclose, the white mantle contrasting with the blueish black shell.

A few days later I returned with my probe lens, as i thought this would offer an original perspective. It was a tricky thing to do as this lens lets in very little light. The difference between foreground and background seems slightly off as well! These photos show that the mussels were crawling with the tubedwelling amphipod Jassa marmorata, a prominent fouling species. I planned to return to try again a few days later, but the chains had been replaced by ‘fresh’ ones, bad luck! I will go back to have a look at them as soon as the weather allows it.

P.S. there are two older posts tagged with ‘buoys‘.

Blennies

Posted on by under fish, Macro, mzuiko60mm, snorkeling
A trip to one of my favourite spots on the North Coast, Booby’s Bay, two weekends back led to a fun rockpool photography sesh. The pools here are quite different than in Falmouth: deeper, more exposed and with fewer seaweeds (see here for impressions). Shannies (Common Blennies) and Montagu’s Blennies are abundant here and I chose not to seach for things ‘more special’ but take pics of these characterful fish. Shannies are greyish and common, but actually very beautiful as you can see above. Their mottled, slimy (scale-less) skin also makes them very well-camouflaged as is clear from the photo below.
Below a few more pics, including of Montagu’s Blennies, which have a ‘quiff’. Some of these fish have hatched not too long ago and are tiny (<1 cm)! When I took these pics the weather was great (and I ditched the wetsuit) but as I am writing this post it is raining and blowing outside. My snorkel outings will be less frequent from now on unfortunately, but on the plus side my blogging will pick up….

Back to Silver Steps

Posted on by under diving, fish, Macro, molluscs, nudibranchs, Silver Steps, worms

With the camera housing back, I have been in the water again lately, taking quite a few photos. I am lagging behind with posting quite a bit (this will allow me to post when I cannot get in the water later in the year) but should occasionally maintain the blog over summer, so here is! My local haunt Silver Steps provided during two dives with the macro lens. Above a Twin Fan Worm (Bispira volutacornis). These are quite shy (i.e. they retract into their parchment-like tube when their composite eyes detect a curious diver) but also are attached to cluttered rock walls. To blur this unappealing background, I used a very shallow depth of field (f 2.8); this also has the advantage of letting a lot of light in so ISO can be decreased to 100 – sorry non-photographers!). Below a collage of other ‘usual suspects’ (names under the photos) but ALSO I SPOTTED AN OCTOPUS! Crouched in a crevice and with only a macro lens I could not do it justice but it was still a very nice encounter.