jlyle
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Lined sole, about one-inch long.
Pics of the tough-to-spot, tough to find and the rare.
- Thread starter deepsea21
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Kharon
Contributor
Glad for this thread. Thanks people. I'm getting to see some critters that I will never get to see in person.
jlyle
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Nudibranchs and seaslugs are in the category of tough to spot, hard to find, and rare. Painted elysia and sea lettuce slugs are plentiful but hard to spot if you don't know where to look. For years we finished our deep dives drifting over the sand flats inland from the reef. Several years ago, I noticed a black speck that was moving and looked closer. I'll be damned if it wasn't a tiny slug. Once I found one, I found many. Like many other critters, numbers of slugs vary from year to year. Sometimes there are hundreds, sometimes none. The black specks photograph red!
The common name for this tiny slug is flapping dingbat. To escape predators, it flaps its "wings" and "flies" above the sand. The surrounding grains of sand give you an idea of how small these critters are.
The common name for this tiny slug is flapping dingbat. To escape predators, it flaps its "wings" and "flies" above the sand. The surrounding grains of sand give you an idea of how small these critters are.
marcus8
Contributor
Flying Gurnards back in 2010. Beach dive in 20 feet of water off of Hotel Cozumel. I'd never seen them before this, or since.
Ricardo V.
Contributor
@deepsea21,
That’s which you describe is the proper technique. Keep at it. Try adjusting your focus manually to fine tune it just before you take the shot. The camera will struggle focusing because the level of phase detection and contrast is almost imperceptible to the camera. Our brains adjust to the low light and can see something there, but the camera sensors can’t see it, not enough light and not enough contrast. I’m pretty sure that this low contract characteristic is not unique to these types of critters. There are many that the camera will just not see... i.e. predators can’t see them either...
I recommend using a red focusing light, that helps the camera attain focus and generally is not a color spectrum seen by most blue water critters. Once your flash fires, the red light will dissipate and you will get true colors.... so long you have the red focusing light set on low too.
Cheers,
Ricardo
That’s which you describe is the proper technique. Keep at it. Try adjusting your focus manually to fine tune it just before you take the shot. The camera will struggle focusing because the level of phase detection and contrast is almost imperceptible to the camera. Our brains adjust to the low light and can see something there, but the camera sensors can’t see it, not enough light and not enough contrast. I’m pretty sure that this low contract characteristic is not unique to these types of critters. There are many that the camera will just not see... i.e. predators can’t see them either...
I recommend using a red focusing light, that helps the camera attain focus and generally is not a color spectrum seen by most blue water critters. Once your flash fires, the red light will dissipate and you will get true colors.... so long you have the red focusing light set on low too.
Cheers,
Ricardo
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Ricardo V.
Contributor
More Cozumel critters. This one is not rare, nor that tough to find, they are cool though!!!
It’s a juvenile spotted drum.
Cheers,
Ricardo
It’s a juvenile spotted drum.
Cheers,
Ricardo
OP
deepsea21
Contributor
Great pic. The juvenile spotted drum I see are usually diving Paso de Cedral which resides at the bottom of my list of Coz dive sites due to the fast current that can create near "fly-by" conditions rendering photography a PITA. However, every time you pass over a little ledge and tuck down in on the protected side under the current if you look in the little protected caverns you'll see them - some larger and some so tiny they look like little wisps swimming around and often there will be more than 1 - sometimes 4-6 all in the same little 1 cubic foot area. That being said, for every 10-20 juveniles I see I probably only see one adult spotted drum.
Juvenile box fish makes a nice complement to your pic of the juvenile drum. This one was about 1/2" long and has developed its box shape. When pea-size they look just like round black spotted peas with fins so small you can't see them and wonder how they manage to swim about.
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OP
deepsea21
Contributor
A Mantis Shrimp and a pair I saw out in the open sand where one was chasing the other around in some kind of mating thing. Usually they are spooked by divers but those 2 had other things on their mind than the diver with the a camera hovering over them. Not the greatest photos but I've only seen a few so I have what have.
This ray was on my bed at the Casa Mexicana. Not sure what kind it is. (After every day of diving I take a pic of the towel critter left by our housekeeper as a way of separating each day's dive pics during our trips). We tend to get lots of towel sea creatures as the staff knows we are divers. We could start a whole new thread dedicated to Cozumel towel critters and animals left by housekeeping... That would be something!
This ray was on my bed at the Casa Mexicana. Not sure what kind it is. (After every day of diving I take a pic of the towel critter left by our housekeeper as a way of separating each day's dive pics during our trips). We tend to get lots of towel sea creatures as the staff knows we are divers. We could start a whole new thread dedicated to Cozumel towel critters and animals left by housekeeping... That would be something!
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Ricardo V.
Contributor
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