Marriard
February 4th, 2007, 03:55 AM
For me this was a satisfying image as I specifically was looking for this Eel on this dive. Dive site was Basura in Anilao, The Philippines.
This meant I looked at basically every rock on a rocky bottom from about 7' deep to 20' deep for 65 minutes until I found this one (although I stopped to photograph everything else interesting I came across as well.) The eye is the only give away - you can actually poke this eel and it STILL wont move or react.
So how do you find this sort of critter. Here is what I knew before I got in the water:
1. Such Eels exist. They have weird eyes, but otherwise don't move much
2. They live in the rocky bottom pretending to be one of the rocks in shallow water - looking above 20' was going to be a good strategy
3. They have been seen in the area before (specifically I had seen one at this dive site and photographed it previously)
4. The eye over-exposes and reflects light easily - so bracket a lot. Also the rocks at the site have a lot of white specks which can be moved
http://www.deepseaimages.com/dsilibrary/data/1254/2006-08-14_15-58-31.jpg
http://www.deepseaimages.com/dsilibrary/data/1254/2006-08-14_15-57-11.jpg
http://www.deepseaimages.com/dsilibrary/data/1254/2006-08-14_15-55-09.jpg
You can see a full gallery of this Eel at:
http://www.deepseaimages.com/dsilibrary/showgallery.php?cat=1254
Enjoy,
M
This meant I looked at basically every rock on a rocky bottom from about 7' deep to 20' deep for 65 minutes until I found this one (although I stopped to photograph everything else interesting I came across as well.) The eye is the only give away - you can actually poke this eel and it STILL wont move or react.
So how do you find this sort of critter. Here is what I knew before I got in the water:
1. Such Eels exist. They have weird eyes, but otherwise don't move much
2. They live in the rocky bottom pretending to be one of the rocks in shallow water - looking above 20' was going to be a good strategy
3. They have been seen in the area before (specifically I had seen one at this dive site and photographed it previously)
4. The eye over-exposes and reflects light easily - so bracket a lot. Also the rocks at the site have a lot of white specks which can be moved
http://www.deepseaimages.com/dsilibrary/data/1254/2006-08-14_15-58-31.jpg
http://www.deepseaimages.com/dsilibrary/data/1254/2006-08-14_15-57-11.jpg
http://www.deepseaimages.com/dsilibrary/data/1254/2006-08-14_15-55-09.jpg
You can see a full gallery of this Eel at:
http://www.deepseaimages.com/dsilibrary/showgallery.php?cat=1254
Enjoy,
M