I realised I still had photos on my hard disc from a bunch of dives taken at local haunt Silver Steps in Falmouth this summer that could do with posting, as some came out quite nicely. Several photos were taken at my secret spot ‘The Crack‘ (I have now labelled all posts with photos taken in this small spot with that tag). I took some with my trusted Olympus 60mm lens and others with my new 30mm lens. The latter worked well with a large aperture to give a nice blurry background, as seen with the Tompot Blenny (Parablennius gattorugine) above (and further below). I also managed to take a good ‘full frontal’ shot of a Connemara Clingfish (Lepadogaster candolii) showing of the sucker with which they attach to the rocks.

During one dive something caught the corner of my eye: a small Spiny Lobster (Palinurus elephas) – a very nice surprise as I had not seen one here for quite a few years! These are tricky customers to take a photo of I find: their antennae are so long that you need a wide angle scene to have them in the frame, as getting close up gets you only part of the animal. Also a photo of a prawn (Palaemon, not sure which of the two possible species); such beautiful animals! Below that a block of some more good photos.

At the end of one dive I came across a nudibranch I had not seen before: a Yellow Skirt (or Venus) Seaslug (Okenia elegans). Extravagant in its colours and proportions this was one of my finds of the year. Unfortunately I could not give it the full photographic treatment I had in mind as I was running low on air when I found it. Finally a bunch of not-so-good photos but they show a range of common local species and so I have added them for completeness. You can read descriptions when you click on individual pics.