While diving at the Misool Ecoresort, I spent most of my time underwater looking for wide-angle soft coral landscapes. However, after the first week, the full moon brought about a plankton bloom which made the visibility go to crap. Thus, I changed the focus of my underwater photography from wide-angle to macro. I was enamored with the beautiful abstract possibilities of the anemone tentacles and have previously shared several of my favorite clown anemonfish images. While reviewing these images after my dives, I discovered numerous tiny invertebrates in the background, so I began to look specifically for them on my later dives. This Sarasvati anemone shrimp is one of my favorites that I photographed. I have tighter images that show more detail of the shrimp, including its eyes, gills, and see-through body, but I like the patterns of the tentacles that help frame the shrimp in its environment. I spent at least 30 minutes trying to photograph this shrimp, and keep in mind that I was underwater about 40′ down a wall with a small amount of current pushing against me the entire time. Buoyancy is a hard skill to master, but especially when looking through a diminished viewfinder and using a marco lens that easily loses reference to what I am trying to photograph. I created this image using my Canon 5DmkII and 100mm f2.8 macro lens in my Ikelite 5DmkII housing with dual Ikelite DS160 strobes set on TTL. This image required minimal processing using Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5.
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Great capture, John. Love your ethereal, otherworldly underwater photography. How small is the little shrimp critter?
Lovely shot. I can only imagine how many exposures you had to take – I doubt these things stay still and pose.
Thanks, guys! This shrimp constantly darted from tentacle to tentacle, so it took a lot of tries to get it right. If the shrimp was about 1/2″, then the entire composition here was about 3″. Not a lot of room for error when the current was pushing against me.
Quite other worldly! Thanks for sharing!
Great shot Jon – seems like a squirrely little guy – so awesome work getting him in such a vibrant composition!
Such an amazing setting, with such brilliant colors. I’ve really enjoyed your underwater series!