The harlequin or banded snake eel (Myrichthys colubrinus) is a non-venomous, non-poisonous fish, which mimics a very venomous banded sea krait. Check out the previous post and imagine you are looking at these creatures from a distance away. What do you think? Can they be mixed up?
Harlequin or banded snake eel (Myrichthys colubrinus)
Harlequin or banded snake eel (Myrichthys colubrinus)
For the banded eel, the mimicry seems to work well. I found this gal on a reef not too far away from where the photo of the banded sea snake was taken. I used f/14 for a little bit more depth of field and 1/80s to compensate aperture. One flash on a medium-length arm from top slightly left.
When I first saw the eel from a distance I thought that it was a snake. However, when I approached it, I wondered why it was sitting relatively calm on sandy ground. The sea snakes I used to take pictures of, were very active and constantly on the go.
When I took the pictures, it became clear that the eel can easily hang out there forever. It doesn’t need to breathe air like the banded sea krait. So plenty of time to chill out on the reef and become Philippines next top model for interested photographers.
Afraid of snakes? Particularly the venomous ones? Rightfully so. The venom of this little pet – a banded or yellow-lipped sea krait (laticauda colubrina) – contains strong neurotoxins and myotoxins. It attacks your nerves and muscles. Hence show respect.
However, this species of sea snakes is not aggressive. On one dive in the Philippines we did some scuba training exercises including hovering and pivoting in a “sandpit” beside a reef at about 3-4 meters depth. All of a sudden, the group started pointing and waiving at my legs – from a safe distance ;-). It turned out that a banded krait thought it is interesting to wiggle between and around my legs. I just stopped moving and stayed calm. A few seconds later the snake left. Unfortunately, nobody else in our group had a camera to take a shot of this funny scene.
The banded sea krait has a fishy brother, which mimics the krait’s look. It’s myrichthys colubrinus, the harlequin or banded snake eel, which is a non-venomous fish. I think I’ll share a photo of it with you in my next post.
So how did I get the shot below?
banded or yellow-lipped sea krait (Laticauda colubrina)
Although banded kraits are said to be nocturnal, this one scavenged the reef during daytime. I set the aperture to f/10 at 1/100s shutter speed. For lighting the scene, I used one flash on a medium-length arm from above.
I followed the snake as it moved around the reef. Rather than trying to out-swim it, I tried to out-smart it by guessing its next move and therefore positioning the camera on its way, before it actually made the turn. With this approach I always able to keep a safe distance and let the snake decide, whether to come closer to the lens or not. Sea snakes are active hunters and they move with quite some speed, so you need to have your gear ready for the shot.
So are you still afraid of sea snakes? – You shouldn’t. But as with any other (venomous) animal: It is always a good idea to show respect.
Have you ever tried to take a still photograph of a squid? – I don’t mean the Calamares on the plate of your favorite restaurant for that matter…
If you have tried, you’ll probably agree, that it’s not an easy shot. First of all, squid are nocturnal animals. Second, they are quite fast moving. Worst of all, their moves are random for the casual observer – including myself, since I am not a squid-whisperer.
So how did I get this shot?
The Perfect Squid
It’s been luck. — “Luck”, you ask? — Yes. I could tell you a story about how I calculated the perfect time and place. But this is blog is about the truth. So here is how this shot was taken:
We dove along a reef on the Philippines. It was a night dive and we were enjoying the whole night-life at the reef (not what some of you might be thinking right now…) It’s really amazing how the fauna changes during night. It feels like diving on a different reef, even if you know the site well during daytime.
Anyhow, I caught a movement at the peripheral angle of my eye. It was this squid. I had to reconfigure my flash setup, since I was on the hunt for ‘small stuff’. For night-dives I am just using the pilot light of my flash as ‘torch’. Nothing else. Scary? Not really. If you are an experienced diver and adventurous – try the following at own risk: Turn off all lights when you are in a safe spot (i.e. sandy ground right below you and no other hazards around). Then move your hands gently – or just look into the dark.
Since I didn’t have any red-light/-filter mounted on the pilot, the tricky part was to not scare the squid away by putting too much light on it. On the other hand – somehow the autofocus needed to work. So it probably looked quite funny, when I moved towards the squid, putting it into the light-beam, then retracting, checking the picture just taken, slightly re-configuring, moving forward again.
Don’t think you can do this forever with a squid though. First of all – these creatures are usually quite shy and don’t like light. Secondly. you’ll find it very hard to put focus on the squid – I promise. Last, but not least, they are gone at any slight disturbance.
If you want to share your squid photo-experience – comment on this page!
How did I get this near-perfect black background? Three things: First, I used f/14 – at night (!) – to provide enough depth of field to get the whole squid in focus plus allow for some ‘additional range’. Second, I put 1/100 sec, which honestly was at the limit of the squid’s movement speed – and I used ISO 200. Admittedly, I could have used a higher ISO rating, but at the speed of the scene – switching gear back-and-forth, I left the ISO where it was and rather focused on getting the shot.
Thirdly? Yes, here is the last ingredient of the secret sauce… Thirdly I retouched the background using Lightroom. There was simply too much sediment in the Philippine sea to not-be-captured using significant flash power for this night-shot. — I hardly use heavy background retouch, but for aesthetic reasons, I chose to do so on this picture.
Another shot from beautiful Bali showing a soft coral crab (Hoplophrys oatesi) making its way between the corals.
The picture’s background was intentionally trimmed to pure black by using 1/100 sec at f/22 – and getting enough flash power to make this little creature shine.
Soft coral crab (Hoplophrys)
Wayan, our local dive-guide spotted the crab. – I honestly wouldn’t have noticed it in its perfect camouflage. Another example, why diving with local guides pays off.
Moothbrooders offer a great subject for a photo session, although it turns out that they are quite difficult to find. On the pictures below, a ring-tailed cardinal fish (ostorhinchus aureus, syn. apogon aureus), named after the black ring at the base of its tail, decided to pose and model for me. It kept opening and closing its mouth to circulate oxygen-rich water around its eggs.
Mouthbrooding ring-tailed cardinalfish
Mouthbrooding ring-tailed cardinalfish
The story for the shot? It was taken on the north coast of beautiful Bali in June timeframe. The tricky part – after finding the fish – was to capture the fish with its mouth open. It took about five minutes to get the shoots done.
Equipment used? A full-sensor DSLR, 100mm macro lens, one flash mounted top but positioned at a slight angle sideways to give the fish a bit more profile using shadows. 1/100s at f/16 and ISO 100 for those who want to know the detail.
Lionfish (Pterois) are territorial, slow-moving and therefore a great fish to train underwater macro shootings. However, it’s also probably one of the most ‘overly-photographed’ fish for the very same reason. So how to take a slightly different shot than ‘fish on top of reef’?
Lionfish close-up
Lionfish
Lionfish at cleaning station
(1) Get close. But be careful. Particularly with venomous folks like a lionfish – The first shot was taken with a 100mm macro lens with an achromat staked on top of the macro-port. One flash from left to illuminate the scene. Some argue that for a macro-shot the flash should be mounted in the vertical axis straight above the lens. Depending on the subject, I disagree. Like in the first picture above, I prefer to model with light. Creating shadows on one side creates the contrast and therefore the ‘depth’ I wanted for the shot.
(2) Be ready for the special moment. For example, when a fish stretches its mouth or interacts with other creatures. The second photo was taken after a few minutes of waiting calmly near the lionfish.
(3) Check out cleaning stations. These are a great place for shoot outs, if you have enough time. I have found some of the most exciting scenes at these. However, you usually need something between ten to twenty minutes hovering or pivoting there, before the fish relax and literally ‘open up’ like in the third shot above. Done with a 100mm Macro and one flash.
Here is the shoot of the week. It’s the eye of a crocodile fish.
What’s interesting about this shot?
The one thing which is amazing as well as challenging for pictures is camouflage. This shot clearly documents the camouflage strategy of a crocodile fish, an ambush hunter: Hide at the bottom of the sea, and don’t be identified by spots, which look like ‘eyes’.
So this fish is doing exactly the opposite of some other fish, which use imitations of eye-like spots as their protection. The crocodile fish camouflages its eyes by developing a curtain of fractal structures.
How to get so close? Slowly, very, very slowly approach the fish.
Specifics of the shot? F/32, 1/250, two flashes at max. sync speed. ISO 400, my favorite 100mm lens, full-size sensor and an achromat attached to the front port.
Where the picture was made? At Marsa Shagra, Egypt.
Here is another shot which I took during Kurt Amsler’s photo workshop in June. This Lockheed P38 Lightning wreck is located pretty close to St. Cyr-sur-Mer at 38m depth.
Two tricky things with this shot: (a) at 38m of depth you don’t have much bottom time and the brain admittedly works a little bit slower than on the surface, so everything needed to be preconfigured before jumping into the water. (b) Due to the positioning of the wreck and time of day, we needed to shoot against the rising sun.
Hence I chose ISO 800, which is higher than I’d usually go for – for a number of reasons:
to compensate reduced light at this depth
to be able to shoot with faster shutter speed and
to use less flash-power in order to reduce haze of suspended particles
In addition I set the camera to f/13 to have well enough depth of field and a 1/200 shutter speed to get the sun under control.
Two 150Ws flashes were used at 1/4 power. Both were positioned vertically above the fisheye-lens to get as much room as possible between the flashes and the light sediment haze on the sandy floor.
During the recent underwater photo workshop with Kurt Amsler in St. Cyr-sur-Mer, I had the opportunity to check out my 2 achromats stacked onto a 100mm macro lens on some precious corals (corallium rubrum).
For the first shot, I used just one achromat on a full-sensor DSLR with 100mm macro. For the second one, I added another acromat. Two flashes were used. One in slave mode slightly behind/above the coral, the other one in front of the coral, right above the lens. I set the slave to higher power and kept the main one pretty low.
I think it’s amazing what level of detail macro beyond a 1:1 magnification scale can reveal. Hence I am keen to get the acromats ‘wet’ soon again.
Recently, Kurt Amsler held one of his underwater photo workshops in St. Cyr-sur-Mer in the south of France. It was a great opportunity to sharpen my UW-photo skills.
The photo above is a fisheye at about 15m depth. The goal was to highlight the yellow polyps (Zoanthidea) while positioning the diver in bright blue background.
Want to do an estimate how far the polyps have been away from the fisheye’s dome port? It was about 10-20 cm (roughly 5-10 inches). Two flashes were used. One to highlight the corals and the second one obviously for the diver.
by Christopher Daerr
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