Tag Archives: Flushing

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.

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.

Periwinkles

Posted on by under Macro, molluscs

Long time no post – the idea was to spend time taking photos during spring and summer and enjoy the underwater world vicariously by blogging in autumn and winter. However, something terrible happened on my only dive of 2025: my underwater housing sprung a leak! The housing was not flooded to an extent that it damaged my camera but it needed to be repaired before I could get back underwater. Unfortunately there is only one place that can do that, backscatter all the way in California, and even more unfortunately, U.S. customs decided to keep my package on a shelf for over a month. I have never seen an octopus in my decade of diving but of course people reported eight or so per dive last month so I was feeling very sorry for myself!* Anyway, I have been confined to the shoreline so far. To cope with that, I bought a weird chinese macro-wide angle lens to play with which I will post about later. I also used my ‘normal’ 60mm macro lens (sometimes with a Raynox lens attached to the front for extra magnification) and took some time to focus on periwinkles.

At the top and below a Flat Periwinkle (Littorina obtusata or maybe L. fabialis – distinguishing is very hard as it requires investigating differences in penis shape!). As you can see the locations are not always glamorous, but if you zoom in you can still find beauty!

Flat periwinkles tend to be most active above-water, followed by the smaller Rough Periwinkle (Littorina saxatilis – below) with the Common Periwinkle (Littorina littorea – below that) only occasionally moving about.

Finally, a tiny species the Small Periwinkle (Littorina Melharaphe neritoides). Probably overlooked by most, as it is tiny (up to 8mm, usually smaller) and hidden between barnacles (or even nestled in empty barnacle cases) high on the shore.

* and no, I could not bring myself to go diving without a camera…

Two Fish in Flushing

Posted on by under eggs, fish, Flushing, rock pooling

Continuing the theme from the two last posts with some ‘topside’ photos of rockpools. We had a very low tide recently which called for some rockpooling on our local shore here in Flushing. We looked (as always) for anything that we could find, but trying to get some ‘close-focus-wide-angle’ pics of fish with the Panasonic Leica 9mm lens was the main aim. Above a Male Tompot guarding eggs (see pic below) as well as a male Connemara Clingfish (no eggs spotted), recognizable by the bright red cheek markings. I have not been underwater very much, but have a bunch of macro photos of snails and stalked jellyfish that I will put on the blog next. (And remember, I post more frequently on instagram: @an_bollenessor!)

a tiny shrimp, not sure which species
The Connemara Clingfish again
Inachus spider crab in a defensive posture!
Tompot Blenny eggs

Rockpools from the top

Posted on by under Flushing, molluscs, nudibranchs, rock pooling, seaweeds

I tried my hand today at taking photos of rock pools above water – tricky! I used my Leica wide angle lens with a polarizing filter and a handheld strobe in a diffuser. It was fun playing around, although felt my back after an hour or so trying! It is difficult to keep the reflection of the flash out of the shot. The tide was not low so these are small, mid-shore pools dominated by coralline algae and some (fine) red seaweeds. Beadlet and snakelocks anemones, limpets, periwinkles, thick- and purple topshells are the most common animals. Some sunshine and blue sky – let’s see when I can try my hand at underwater photos again!

P.S. two extra pics taken a day later (without flash) near Bream Cove featuring an anemone-eating Aeolidia nudibranch.

Fish Portraits

Posted on by under fish, Flushing, Macro, rock pooling

Last weekend the weather was rubbish but the tide was low, and so we went over to our local beach in Flushing for some rock pooling. I did not bring the underwater housing, but just the macro lens and my cygnustech diffuser. Above a little clingfish – this could either be a Two-spotted or a Small-headed Clingfish; they are very hard to tell apart if they are not breeding males (see pic below for scale, I had to use the extra magnification of the Raynox clip-on lens for this one). Below three other fish species: a Tompot Blenny, a Common Blenny (or Shanny) and a Montagu’s Blenny (which is from an earlier post, but I wanted to complete the set here).

Green Paddleworms

Posted on by under Macro, worms

The Emerald Green Paddle Worm (or Green Leaf Worm) Eulalia clavigera ranges from a few to 10 centimetres and is common in rockpools in Britain (although most are probably more familiar with their egg masses, see here). During a recent scramble over the Trefusis Headland I noticed some out of the water on Codium adhaerens seaweed. Using my cygnustech diffuser and a bit of extra magnification courtesy of a Raynox clip-on macrolens I got to work! Taking photos of these worms is difficult as they are continuously on the move. It is also hard to get close to them with the diffuser bumping into the rocks and obscuring the light. However, they are very rewarding subjects; worms are usually overlooked but they are very beautiful! The Codium seaweed proved a perfect background, absorbing all light, a bit like black velvet. When you spend enough time on your knees peering down, you also always notice other things, some tiny springtails Anura maritima as well as some even tinier red mites (see also this old post). One of my new year’s resolutions is to photograph more worms – and the good thing is that there are many other species available, including paddle worm species, one of which is in the process of being described new to science by my friend David Fenwick).

Two fish portraits

Posted on by under fish, Macro

A quick post, again of macro shots on-land using the cygnustech diffuser. A Montagu’s Blenny (Coryphoblennius galerita) and a Shanny (Lipophrys pholis) (check its teeth, it is a combtooth blenny). Due to the recent storm I did not venture into the water but had a wander down the shore here in Flushing. The fish were gently placed on some wet seaweed where they lay still before hopping back in their rockpool. The diffuser really gives the photos a moody atmosphere! I hope one day I can find a Tompot blenny on a very low tide to complete the set.

Buoy Biodiversity

Posted on by under bryozoans, buoys, crustaceans, fisheye, Flushing, invasive species, non-native species, Olympus OM-E-M1 Mark II, photography, seaweeds, snorkeling, sponges, tunicates, wide angle

A while ago I played around with taking pics of the underside of a buoy, which was fun, and so i wanted to practice this some more. My mistake the first time (see here) was to use a fast shutterspeed (the buoy was bobbing about after all) which made the water look unnaturally dark. I tried again this weekend and it went a bit better, although I already know I can improve things. This time I thought it would be nice to put some names to the amazing fouling biodiversity (I did this before for some seaweed images, see here). Crustaceans (tube-dwelling Jassa), Sponges, Bryozoans, Seaweeds but especially a lot of Tunicates (seasquirts; both solitary and colonial species). David Fenwick (of AphotoMarine fame) had a quick look to help with some IDs; there is a more there but this was not meant to be exhaustive. I have underlined species that are invasive. Anyway, I am sure I will post more of these types of images: the buoys are always there and these organisms do not swim off when you try to take a photo!

Buoy

Posted on by under bryozoans, Flushing, snorkeling, sponges, tunicates, wide angle

A rare sunny interval on Saturday meant I grabbed my gear for one last snorkel this year before returning to The Netherlands for Christmas. The visibility seemed good the last couple of days (judged by peering down the quay) and there was no wind, but I was quickly disappointed when sticking my head underwater at Flushing beach (also had major brain freeze!). I headed to the nearest buoy to practice some close focus wide able shots with my two strobes (one just arrive back from Japan for repairs). This proved difficult but fun. Lots of adjusting positions; outward when they created back scatter and inwards when the middle of the photo was not lit up. As the buoy was bobbing about I used a fast shutterspeed which resulted in dark water but that too has its charms. Lots of diversity, including the solitary seasquirt Cione intestinalis, colonial seasquirts Botryllus schlosseri, Diplosoma listerianum, Didemnum (maculosum?), bryozoans Watersipora subatra and Bugula and/or Bugulina species, the purse sponge Sycon ciliatum as well as tufts of red seaweeds and green Ulva. There are an enormous amount of tiny critters such as worms and snails hidden between all these species as well. It will be a nice project for next year to take a better wide able pic and complement these with macro pics of individual species.