Details – Fine
Macro. It’s what they call it. Macro means large to me. It is counterintuitive to me. But the art or style is to get the details. And believe me the details are often not obvious on first look.
Red coral has hair – like the fine hair on your arm. Not obvious. I don’t know what the purpose is. I don’t see the hairs on most coral.
Horns – rhinopores. The yellow orange are pretty obvious. And the serrations are a new discovery since I now get magnified views with my super macro lens. The black and white – gee! – I didn’t know there were rhinopores for three years. There is a front and back! Damn! Starfish – fine details – it was out because the water was so murky the starfish was fooled into thinking it was dark. This is stuff that I simply never appreciated till I started macro photography. Neat!
Starfish In The Sea
There are several types that I see. This one is a pebbled sea star. The other is a Ghardaqa sea star. Arabic does not follow the convention of “u” after ‘q” so it is disconcerting to type, especially names.
Nice. Cute. Solitary. Frequently found under coral. They aren’t too special to me since I have seen lots of starfish in the aquariums I have frequented. But I’m still having fun finding them during a dive.
Natural light does not make the background fade. It gives an overall tint of green with reds washed out. Digital white balance can compensate. Flash gives a more natural look. But then again, why are the animals red at all. At depth the natural color fades and red is not really seen. Or it is dull. So why then be red? There’s a question here somewhere. If you can’t see red are you invisible. Or, does sea life adapt anyway and not see red? Or are fish color blind? I’m not wiki so I will let you look this fun fact up.
Starfish
It looks like a color blindness test. It was there on a night dive. I admit I have not seen another like it. The lighting was improvised using my dive flashlight. The center of the beam is too brilliant and overexposed my image. So I had to rely on the light at the border. Well you get the picture. And I shot without my usual flash. And it is a starfish in the sea.
Starfish
Another day another night dive. Right as we dropped to the bottom there on a coral outcropping was a starfish. This is an unexpected pose. Maybe it was settling into place. I shot quickly because my buddy was headed to 100 feet and I was behind. Never leave your wingman.
Starfish
The biggest urge I have to avoid is staging the image. Well, maybe once or twice… but mostly I just shoot as is. Of course with the fishies it’s not possible to stage anything. But starfish?…don’t you just want to move them around to make a better image. No? I really don’t do it. But it sure tempts me sometimes. I think that to see the starfish lounging in nature is more natural than seeing all the arms symmetrically displayed.
Starfish
My divemaster said that it’s a starfish. I have to take his word. I wasn’t willing to pull it out from under the rock. The spikes are pretty impressive. Anyway a quick look-up on the internet says that starfish don’t have spikes. So these are spines. I didn’t have any other comparable pictures. From where I was this was a creature that said, “Leave me alone.” And I did. And…. well, I’ve just returned from night dive. My divemaster showed me a sea urchin at night. And in about a month or so I’ll post some dramatic night images. But the one on top is probably a sea urchin. They come out at night. Then again, maybe the starfish come out at night also. So far I didn’t find anything comparable on the ‘net. By the time this post finally is published maybe the answer will be a little more clear. There is another contender – nudibranch – a kind of ocean slug. There’s quite a lot of variation and some suggestion that urchin and starfish are the wrong answer….
