Having noodles, specifically toshikoshi soba (年越しそば), on 31 December is a time-honoured tradition in Japan. The process of eating these long buckwheat noodles symbolises crossing from one year to the next.
Here’s a snapshot of the delicious, handmade soba I just had at my favourite soba place in Izu:
As has become my late-each-December habit since starting my blog, I sat down early this morning to look through some of my posts from the past 12 months.
In short, 2010 has been incredible, certainly a year for which to be thankful. Among the highlights:
The year started off with a frenzy of activity, first with an amazing adventure to swim among dozens of Atlantic sailfish (Istiophorus albicans) in Isla Mujeres, Mexico with Eric Cheng and Sterling Zumbrunn.
To say that the experience was overwhelming is like saying double-chocolate hot-fudge brownies with fresh homemade vanilla ice cream are sorta nice. Yeah, duh.
Conditions were difficult, and the sailfish made us work, but there’s really no way to describe the sensation of being surrounded by so many majestic predators chasing madly after schools of sardines.
For obvious reasons, our attention was primarily devoted to the sailfish, but one of the highlights of the trip was discovering the expression on one of the sardine’s faces when I reviewed one of the photos up-close:
Hot on the heels of that adventure, I headed over (with travel companions Eric, Cor Bosman and Julie Edwards) to spend quality time with a bunch of sperm whales in Dominica, during which time I took the photograph below.
This image placed first in the underwater category of the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. I travelled to London in late October to attend the reception, see the other selected photographs, and meet many of the talented people who took the other prize-winning images. (Photo of me at the exhibit)
This experience in Dominica followed on my good fortune in 2009 photographing a sperm whale carrying a large chunk of giant squid, and also my first in-water encounter with a sperm whale 10 years earlier when I involuntarily ended up on top of the whale’s head with the whale chewing one of my fins. (I wrote about that first experience for Issue 9 of Underwater Photography Magazine, copy of the issue here).
And in the first part of October, just before going to London, I again saw and photographed sperm whales with giant squid in Ogasawara, albeit with smaller pieces than I saw the year before.
Sperm whales have been really good to me over the years. How many people can say that?!
I organised two Night Safari trips this year, which involved diving in dark, mucky conditions to look for strange critters into the wee hours of the morning. I’ve been wanting to do this for ages (This is not a “normal” ambition, I know. But where’s the adventure in being normal?), and 2010 was when it all came together.
The first Night Safari was at Kasawari Lembeh Resort in the Lembeh Strait in late February/ early March, which I ran together with David and Sanah from Scubacam:
…and the second was at Maluku Divers Resort in Ambon, together with Eric (I spent a lot of time with Mr Cheng this year), plus friends from Wetpixel and the FiNS Flickr group:
Let me just state for the record that Night Safaris are awesome, and you haven’t really lived until you’ve devoted several nights to scrounging through mud and rubble in the ocean for alien-ish freaky creatures with toxic spines that pack quite a wallop if you inadvertently touch them.
Life just doesn’t get much better.
My remaining big trip of the year was my annual migration to the southern hemisphere to swim with humpback whales, which was…as always…just amazing. The whales and overall conditions were difficult during the 2010 season, but trials and tribulations are all part of the learning process.
I helped my friend Dr. John Potter document what we believe may be evidence of young humpback whales practicing (but not actually singing) song in the waters around Vava’u, which hopefully will be the basis for undertaking more work together with John and friends in Tonga in coming seasons. (More info here)
I have yet to put together my annual calf summary file for 2010 (2009 file here) and accompanying Google map (2009 map here), but once that’s done (i.e., when I get my act together and trawl through the reams of photographs and notes), there should me more insights that come out of the data we collected this year.
Among other highlights in Tonga this year were some action-packed heat runs, my first encounter with oceanic white tip sharks and a striped marlin, a run-in with a seemingly psychotic (or perhaps just really horny) whale, another whale poo episode, and recording a short video of a singing humpback whale with my 5D Mark II:
On the skills-development front, 2010 was the year of multimedia for me.
I devoted a lot(!) of time researching and learning about how to acquire and stitch together several forms of media into a coherent, and hopefully compelling, story.
Early in the year, I put together the Lembeh Night Safari video edited almost entirely in Aperture, then hunkered down and worked my way through the basics of Final Cut Pro and Motion to edit this piece about diving in the Eastern Fields of Papua New Guinea:
Then I collected my thoughts for a presentation about multimedia storytelling, which I gave at TDEX in Bangkok in July:
I taught myself the basics of Soundtrack Pro to edit the audio for the video above, knowledge that came in handy when I pulled my year-long multimedia-skills-learning efforts all together to create my Ambon Beneath the Waves video and this short piece about the really cool eels in Larike Village:
To sum up in a single sentence what I’ve learned over the past several months: “It’s not easy to put together a nice piece that combines photographs, video, audio and text, but the key is to make it look simple.”…if that makes sense.
Being able to push forward with multimedia storytelling not only required gaining a reasonable level of proficiency with several software packages, but also, having new hardware…like video-capable DSLRs and compact audio recorders capable of capturing high quality sound…as well as small, portable lights like the SOLA 600s I used in Ambon, and of course, the unique Totomega lens.
In other words, effective multimedia storytelling represents the convergence of strong storytelling skills, solid media-acquisition techniques, adept use of the latest in software, and keeping up with innovations in hardware.
Basically…lots of fun, with a good measure of headache.
Finally, and most importantly, I got to spend time with many friends in the course of travelling this year, and also to make many more new friends. It’s been my experience that friends I make in the course of travel are the people who tend to stay friends for the longest time. Perhaps it’s because of the common interests, or perhaps because we meet in circumstances where there are no hidden agendas, no pretences.
Whatever the case may be…”Thank you!” to everyone who put up with me this year (a few examples of what I mean by “put up with”: Mike, the Three Stooges, Richard, Rachel), and I hope to have the pleasure of travelling with you again soon.
2010 will definitely be a tough act to follow.
With that thought, I’m off for a quiet holiday in Izu…to eat a lot, drink to excess, and contemplate goals for the upcoming year.
Toward the end of my stay in Ambon, I visited Larike village, which is about an hour away from Maluku Divers by car. I went to check out the resident eels.
Yup. Eels.
On previous visits, I had seen and photographed the eels of another village called Wai (I posted some of the photos here), but this was my first visit to Larike.
It just so happens that Hafes, one of the friendly team at Maluku Divers, is the Raja of Larike…literally, the King of the village. As a result, getting information about the eels and arranging a visit was a relatively straightforward proposition (or, as straightforward as things can be on an island).
I made two trips to the village, the first of which was late one afternoon to check out the layout of the area, as well as the temperament of the eels.
On that initial visit, one of my top priorities was to determine how friendly the eels exactly were. There’s friendly…and then there’s really friendly. I was hoping for the latter, in order to get compelling footage.
Hafes was my guinea pig, as you can see in the picture below.
I asked him to stand in the river while the eels slithered up to check out his feet. I didn’t realise it at the time, but Hafes wasn’t completely certain that the eels wouldn’t devour his toes, so hats off to him for keeping his cool (well, almost doing so if you discount the muffled shrieks of panic).
Once we (actually, Hafes) had established that the eels would only slime, not eat, you, we headed back to the resort, where I packed my gear for a return visit the following morning to get footage for this video, The Eels of Larike:
Background music by Erenst Michael Puturuhu
Downloadable copy available via iTunes.
While I had my head dipped into the water with a couple dozen eels around my head, Hafes took a few snapshots, no doubt relieved that it was me, not him, this time who was face-to-face with the horde of serpentine creatures.
Note: Andy, the dude not brave enough to stick his face in the water, is the owner of Maluku Divers. He fancies himself an artist, but it was a struggle just getting him to hold one of my lights correctly. The things I have to put up with.
I’m not certain what kind of eels these are, but I suspect they are a species of the genus Anguilla, perhaps the Indonesia shortfin eel Anguilla bicolor bicolor. (Update 4 Feb 2011: They are more likely Anguilla marmorata, common name = giant mottled eel.)
Like other eels of this genus, these elongated fish are catadromous. They begin life at sea in a mass spawning session. As larvae, they’re known as leptocephali. They develop into a form called glass eels, and then elvers when they become pigmented. They then return to rivers to mature, and eventually go back to sea to spawn.
Actually, there’s a lot we don’t know about these types of eels (no surprise, eh?), but one thing is for certain. Global populations of Anguillid eels have declined precipitously in recent years (again, no surprise, right?). Some of the decrease is probably due to overfishing/ overconsumption (think: unagi), but habitat destruction no doubt plays a role too.
One thing that attracted me to Larike is that the village is just metres away from the ocean. The eels can come and go as they please, so in a sense, it’s a refuge for these animals. In many “advanced” countries, rivers have been dried up, dammed up, silted up or otherwise stuffed up by our collective short-sightedness.
Eels can’t complain and don’t attract cute-cute, hug-hug attention for NGO fund-raising campaigns, so most people don’t know about them.
“Save the Eel!” just doesn’t make the grade as a marketing slogan.
If you’d like to learn more about eels, I can recommend: Eels: An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World’s Most Mysterious Fish, which I just finished reading not too long ago. It’s not the most succinct of titles, but it’s a fascinating book about a subject that you might not otherwise have occasion to learn much about.
When you visit Ambon, it’s worth take a little time at the end of your stay to drop by Larike and see the eels. The river is a center of activity for the village, so there are usually people about. The eels are totally accustomed to people wandering around, so it’s not difficult to see them.
Take a towel, some drinking water, bug repellent and a mask/ snorkel if you want to stick your head in the water.
To close this post, here are a couple of photos of kids from the village:
Notice that the girls are actually working. The boys are…well…doing important boy stuff like posing for the camera.
When you concentrate on diving at night (as was the case for much of my recent stay in Ambon), you have an opportunity to pick up on things that you might not otherwise notice.
Doing an occasional night dive here and there is one thing, but visiting the same sites night-after-night for several dives a night affords you the chance to focus on what’s going on.
Harlequin shrimp, for example, are relatively common at the Laha 2 dive site. It’s always fun to watch these beautiful crustaceans with their starfish farms, but it’s not as common to see them at night.
After coming across a few pairs of these shrimps during daylight hours, I got it in my head to look for them at night. With the help of Marcel Hagendijk (I challenge you to say that name three times in succession, or even once for that matter.), who’s managing the Maluku Divers resort, I managed to find and spend quality time with a very cooperative pair one evening.
With these shrimp, it wasn’t so much unusual behaviour I was looking for, but more of a unique photo opportunity.
The lack of ambient light meant less visual distraction and clutter, so I was able to get a bit creative, and portray these familiar animals just a little bit differently than you normally see them.
See? There really is a point to diving through the night.
Having spent the past few days completely buried in editing, I’m still a bit wired, with my brain stuck in editing mode.
I decided to direct my OCD energy into something productive, so I put together the diagram below, which sets out the workflow I followed for my Ambon Beneath The Waves video.
If you’re a photographer thinking about delving into multimedia projects, or you happen to be interested in reading about what’s involved in putting together something like the Ambon video, read on.
If not, my rambling will undoubtedly bore you, so it’s probably best to skip this post.
If you happen to be a video expert, you might find this amusing, and I’d certainly appreciate tips on what I can do better.
To preface the balance of this discussion, let me underscore that this workflow isn’t set in stone. It’s part of an evolving methodology that I’ve been refining and re-jigging over the past few years, so what I describe below is best characterised as a snapshot in time, rather than a hard-and-fast recipe.
It’s the current status of what I’ve learned through trial-and-(lots of)error, and I have no doubt that the methodology I follow will change again with the next project I undertake.
Also, please note that I use Macs. I always have, and probably always will. The software I discuss below is mainly for Macs. The basic thought process I outline below should, however, apply irrespective of the hardware platform you prefer, and there are equivalent programs available for non-Mac computers.
For ease of explanation, I’ve divided my workflow into four major sections: Acquire Media, Organise Media, Edit Media, Output Media (logical, no?).
Acquire Media
Arguably, this is the most important step. Without high-quality raw material, there’s not much point going further.
For the Ambon project, I used a combination of photographs (taken with Canon 40D, 7D, 5D and 5D Mark II cameras), underwater video clips (taken entirely with a Canon 7D), and an audio recording (captured with a Zoom H4n).
Of course, there was much more hardware than cameras involved, like three SOLA 600 lights (courtesy of Light & Motion and Scubacam) and a FIX LED1000DX light to illuminate the video clips, lots of strobe, tonnes of batteries, a few Gorillapods, and a bunch of homemade bits and pieces held together by miscellaneous nuts, bolts, tape and crossed fingers.
As you can see from the chart at the end of this post, I use high-quality formats for capturing data (RAW for photos, 1080p for video, 24-bit/ 48kHz wav for audio). The thinking behind this is simple: It’s easy to downsample; it’s not a good idea to upsample.
If this is obvious to you, good. If you don’t understand why this is necessary, you might want to read up on image, video and audio formats.
I use a software program called Photo Mechanic to ingest all my image and video files, because it’s lightning-fast, which makes it perfect for doing a first-cut edit to weed out obvious rejects.
With Photo Mechanic, I rename all my incoming files in sequential order, using the following naming convention:
yearmonth_location_description_number
So the first underwater photograph from my recent trip to Ambon would be:
201011_Ambon_Underwater_0001
…with all of my underwater images and video files in a single folder on my hard drive.
I don’t ingest audio files with Photo Mechanic. I copy directly into a dedicated audio file folder and label the files as necessary. I have the Zoom H4n set up so it names audio files by date and sequentially, and just add descriptive terms after the file name.
For example:
101127-003.wav
…means the third file I recorded the on 27 November 2010. The H4n assigns this name automatically.
Then I augment the file name to:
101127-003_panggayo.wav
…so it’s easy for me to see that this is Michael’s rendition of Panggayo.
At this stage, I make two backups of everything. Basically, if I don’t have three copies of every file, they don’t exist. Digital files are really convenient, but they’re also easy to lose. All it takes is a malevolent cup of coffee…
Also, I’ve come to realise that it’s not necessary for me to separate RAW photo files and video files. I read them all into the same folder, and name them sequentially as outlined above.
At first blush, you might think this would be confusing. It would, were it not for Aperture, which is the key to the next major step in my workflow.
Organise Media
Aperture is a really powerful software package. As I pointed out before in a review of my initial experience with Aperture 3.0, there are some things that I find vexing about the program, but on the balance, I find it incredibly useful. (Many of the issues I had before have been addressed in subsequent software updates.)
Put simply, Aperture is the backbone of my workflow.
First, I create a new, dedicated Library for each project/ trip. This is essential, as I find Aperture’s performance drops if you ask it to manage too many files.
It’s good risk-management as well, since a Library crash or database corruption would affect only one specific endeavour, as opposed to all my files.
I import all my photo, video and audio files into the dedicated Library as Referenced Files in Projects (usually one Project for underwater files and another for land files), meaning the files stay where I put them on my hard drive using Photo Mechanic. I do not import the actual files into the Aperture Library. (I know the jargon is a bunch of gibberish if you’re not familiar with Aperture, but I can’t really go into a detailed Aperture tutorial here.)
Next…and here’s the key…I use Aperture’s Smart Albums to sort through my jumble of files. (Smart Albums are basically a way to sort through data automatically using parameters that you specify. Basic database stuff.)
I assign star ratings and/ or colour codes (easily accessible with keyboard shortcuts) to all my files, and then create Smart Albums to pull out relevant files into easily viewable screens.
I end up with quick-and-easy access to the files I like the most (while also keeping the other files handy in case I need them).
Since my audio files are in a separate folder structure on my hard drives, I don’t need to separate them from the photo and video files. I import them as Referenced Files into a separate Project structure in the same Aperture Library, and again use a Smart Album to select the audio files I like.
I keyword and caption all the files I can, so I’m able to search for specific files later.
At this point in my workflow, all my favourite files will have been distilled into a series of Smart Albums, which means I can view/ listen to all my selected files whenever I want.
It’s also very easy for me to remove files from Smart Albums (without actually deleting any files), or to assign new files to Smart Albums. This is perhaps the single most useful feature of Aperture for me…imposing order on chaos.
I can’t overstate how powerful this sorting capability is. If you keep everything in traditional folders on a hard drive and look through them manually, it would take you much, much(!) longer to find and keep track of the files you want.
As a bonus, I use Aperture to do 90% of my photo editing, meaning that I don’t have to resort to Photoshop too often (a good thing, given what a Photoshop dunce I am). And…here’s another kicker…I use Aperture to Trim video and audio clips.
Aperture plays the H.264 video clips from my DSLRs with ease, so I can view, select and Trim my video clips to just the parts I want. Aperture can do the same with audio files.
This capability is vital as preparation for the next step.
Edit Media
With all my media organised and sorted into Smart Albums, photos 90% edited in Aperture, and video and audio clips Trimmed to relevant sections…I’m ready to proceed to the core of the editing process.
By now, I have a storyline in mind, so I have a decent idea of what media I’ll need at specific stages of the editing process.
As a general rule, I start with audio…whether it’s background music, interviews, sound effects or ambient sound. It might seem counter-intuitive, but I’ve found that audio is the most important part of a visual presentation.
If I know how the audio for a project will go, it’s relatively easy to adjust the visual elements. If I try setting the visuals first and then adjusting audio…I usually end up with a big mess.
Maybe it’s just me, but that’s what works for me.
So…if Photo Mechanic is the core of my media acquisition, and Aperture the core of my media organisation process, Final Cut Pro is the core of my editing process. (FCP is part of Final Cut Studio.)
FCP is a challenging piece of software to get your mind around. The first time I tried FCP, it took me a couple of days of futzing around until I got the hang of the program, but I had sort of built up to FCP by learning less involved software packages like Fotomagico and Aperture (which I used to edit my Lembeh video earlier this year) first, then using Final Cut Express…so I sort of had a head start. Going into FCP cold would’ve been a lot tougher.
For the Ambon video, I decided to use FCP (over Fotomagico, Aperture or FCP Express) for two main reasons.
First, Michael’s rendition of Panggayo has an upbeat rhythm, and I wanted to use the song’s beat and pace to carry the visuals. In order to do this, I needed to be able to time the ins and outs for all the graphics. By using Markers in FCP, it’s relatively easy to predetermine and visualise transition points.
Most likely, there are ways to achieve the same thing in the other software options I have access to, but I’m very comfortable with the Markers in FCP.
Second, I knew that I wanted to create titles with a bit of animation, and also that I would need to edit the audio recording to remove background noise, cut out ambient disturbances and use an equaliser to bring out the depth of Michael’s voice.
FCP, Motion and Soundtrack Pro work well together, meaning I can send/ receive files from one program to another, and whatever edits I make in one program are reflected in the others. Very slick once you figure it out.
Anyway…one of the keys to using FCP is knowing from the beginning the format of your source files. So, for instance, I set my FCP timeline for the Ambon project to take 1080p video at 30fps (29.97) in ProRes (LT) format with 48kHz audio.
Before starting my FCP edit, I needed to ensure that my selected media suited the timeline specs.
Photos were easy. I exported edited Versions from Aperture as 72dpi jpgs at original size. For some images, I needed to bit of clean-up, so I used Photoshop for finishing touches (like backscatter removal).
Audio was simple in this instance as well. I used the original recording, which was at 48kHz.
Prepping video footage required more work. Canon DSLRs capture video footage in H.264 format as Quicktime files. The compression is quite high, so it’s not a great format for using in editing software like FCP.
To get around this, I had to transcode (change format) from the H.264 files to ProRes (LT), which is edit-friendly and of sufficient quality for what I want to achieve.
There are a number of ways to do this. Canon released a plugin for FCP for this purpose. It works, but I’ve found that I don’t need or particularly like using it.
Remember I said that I use Aperture to Trim video clips to the specific sections I want? So, for instance, let’s say I have a 90-second clip, but only really want to consider a 10-second portion for the project.
In such a scenario, I would use Aperture to Trim to that specific 10 seconds (a very easy process in Aperture), and then export that Trimmed Version (meaning the exported file would be only the selected 10 seconds, not the full 90 seconds).
I would then use a free software program called MPEG Streamclip to transcode to ProRes (LT) format, which works really well in FCP.
For this specific project, I had one more problem to solve. For a previous project, I had set my Canon 7D to capture video at 24fps (23.98) instead of 30fps (29.97)…and I forgot to change the settings until part way through my stay in Ambon. Bummer, but not insurmountable.
Using Cinema Tools (part of Final Cut Studio) I conformed the 24fps (23.98) video footage to 30fps (29.97). The speed of the video changed a little bit, and the audio no longer synced, but it didn’t matter too much, as the clips were short, and I didn’t need the audio (just recordings of me breathing underwater).
So…with all my media in the proper formats, I imported all the files into FCP, arranged them into folders (called Bins in FCP) and set everything out on my timeline.
For finishing touches, I used Motion to create the titles/ text animation, and Soundtrack Pro to polish up Michael’s rendition of Panggayo.
Both software packages are incredibly powerful, and I’ve only scratched the surface of what they can do, but I’ve mastered them enough to get what I need done, and will continue to learn a new trick or two with each new project.
Output Media
Finally, when everything was just right, I Exported from FCP at full resolution (File, Export, Quicktime Movie) to create a master file with no compression.
I used a nifty device called the Elgato Turbo.264 HD (which Eric Cheng introduced me to earlier this year) to convert to a preset format suitable for uploading to Vimeo, and used a software package (which is unfortunately no longer available) called Visual Hub to create a file that conforms to iTunes specs.
That’s it! See how simple that was?
At some point, I’ll probably delve into Compressor. I just haven’t found the time or motivation to tackle yet another software package.
Summary
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I’m still learning, and I’m pretty certain there are better ways of doing the things I’ve described above.
One frustration I did experience with this workflow was maintaining the quality of still images in the final output. Some photos looked bad no matter what I did, and I had to replace them with other images. It seems like FCP exaggerates noise in photos, especially for images with low depth of field. FCP also seems to brighten all photos upon export, so what I see during editing isn’t quite what I get after export.
Aperture seemed to do a relatively better job with photos in my Lembeh Night Safari video, which I edited and output entirely in Aperture. One possible explanation is the fact that I imported jpg files (albeit high quality jpgs) into FCP for this project, while Aperture exported the final slideshow/ video using RAW files as the source files.
Whatever the case, it’s something I’ll have to figure out in the future. Perhaps there’s some way to get the best of both worlds.
There’s obviously a lot more to each step along the way than I can set out here, but I hope this overview and the chart below are helpful. If you have any tricks, pointers or solutions…please share!
I’ve had my head buried in my computer for the past few days putting together the following short video with a selection of images and video clips from my visits to Ambon:
Downloadable copy available via iTunes.
Of particular note, the background music is a local song called Panggayo, which Michael was kind enough to sing for me.
If you visit Ambon and dive with Maluku Divers, there’s a good chance that Michael will be the guy who picks you up at the airport…so be sure to tease him tell him what a talented singer he is!
He has a wonderful voice and is proficient with a number of instruments, including guitar. I’m really happy he agreed to help with the video, since finding appropriate music for a slideshow/ video is always difficult. Featuring local talent adds a nice touch to the finished product.
Enjoy the video, and visit Ambon if you get the opportunity!
Note: If you’re interested in reading about the workflow I used to put this video together, I summarised the main points in this post.
Turns out that the grape-flavoured Rhinopias I mentioned in my earlier post was not a frondosa.
It’s a Rhinopias eschmeyeri, otherwise known as a paddle-flap scorpionfish.
How did I figure that out?
Easy.
I emailed Richard again.
Right after the Night Safari group left Ambon, a bunch of Rhinopias showed up.
Yup, we didn’t manage to find any of the enigmatic scorpionfish while there were a bunch of snap-happy shooters around, but as soon as everyone left, at least three yellow ones and a purple-grapish coloured one popped up. Go figure.
I’m certain that the yellow ones were weedy scorpionfish (Rhinopias frondosa), because I contacted my friend Richard Smith to ask. He says he’s a marine biologist, so he’s supposed to know stuff like this. I think the grape-hued one was a frondosa as well.
I’ve seen a lot of Rhinopias in Ambon, so it’s always a challenge to find a different way to photograph them. They are, after all, not inherently attractive per se, and they have the inconsiderate tendency to blend-in with surrounding stuff.
Coming away with a standard portrait like this one is a straightforward proposition, not much of a challenge for experienced photographers:
On an earlier visit to Ambon in April 2009, I played around with my strobes to show this type of fish in a different light (ouch, bad pun!):
…which helped to separate the fish from the surrounding clutter.
In this instance, I watched the fish for a long time (while other divers photographed it) before deciding what to do.
In the end, I settled upon the angle below. I could almost sense the overwhelming ennui (I think that’s the first time I’ve ever used that word!) emanating from the fish, which was, no doubt, bored of photographers.
Having the fish look down upon the camera lens just seemed appropriate for the occasion.
First, let me state up front, for the record, that I take my work very seriously. 24/7/365, I’m always looking for the optimal way to portray subjects in a flattering, aesthetically pleasing manner.
I have to confess defeat, however, at the hands of this terrible trio:
Julian and Phil (left and middle) were two of the participants on the recent Ambon Night Safari trip at Maluku Divers with Eric, me and others from Wetpixel and the FiNS Flickr group. Andy is the owner of the resort (who admittedly deserves more respect than I can manage to muster for him…but c’est la vie).
I did my best to make them look good, but I learned a valuable lesson in the process… Sometimes, there is just no going against Mother Nature.
In the end, I settled upon shooting them from a higher vantage point, not just so I could look down upon them (I already do in any event), but also, so I (and by extension you) wouldn’t have to gaze further upon their gruesome grimaces:
And finally, more for my amusement than theirs, I asked them to sit-and-shuffle, in a shell game with no clear winner:
Another nudibranch I’ve had a difficult time photographing in a unique manner in the past is this one, a Jorunna rubescens:
If you Google “Jorunna rubescens” and look at the Images section, most of the photos are nondescript, lacking a “Wow!” factor. That’s not for a dearth of people trying to take nice photographs. It’s just darn difficult to make this nudi look like much.
Totomega lens to the rescue again!
I’ve always referred to this sea slug as “the puppy dog nudibranch”, since the resemblance is obvious, at least to me. Not everyone got the reference though, so now I have a series of photographs to back up my nudi nomenclature.
Incidentally, I misidentified this nudibranch earlier, when I posted a photograph of a juvenile Jorunna. Ron Silver was kind enough to send me a note letting me know that the name was amended in 2002 from Kentrodoris rubescens (my original ID) to Jorunna rubescens. Thank you Ron!
This is the final photograph I captured of this sea slug species while I was in Ambon:
Look carefully, and you’ll see a confused crustacean cast in the role of a chew toy…just to round out the metaphor.
As long as I’m on the topic of nudibranchs, here are a couple of photos of a Spanish dancer (Hexabranchus sanguineus) I came across during one of the night dives in Ambon:
These supersized sea slugs (this one was 30+cm) are beautiful animals, but I’ve never taken a photograph that I like of a Spanish dancer. I’m not sure why, but I think one reason is that it’s difficult to portray them in a unique way.
If you Google “Spanish dancer nudibranch” and look at the Images section, you’ll see what I mean.
Most photos make this nudibranch look either like a floppy red doormat or some sort of vaguely internal-organ-like twisty thing suspended against a background of black or blue.
With the Totomega lens, I finally had a chance to do something different.
It took me a while to figure out how to depict the scarlet sea slug in an unusual manner…the challenge exacerbated by the oversized nudibranch’s restlessness…but investing a bit of time to work out the angles and lighting resulted in a couple of keepers that I’m really happy with.
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