Nudibranch assortment from Komodo

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saudio

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Just returned from a two week trip to Indonesia, 4 days at Scuba Seraya and Bali and 10 days on the Komodo Dancer. Really, really great trip. I'll be happy to answer any questions about the location or the lodging/boat.

After a dozen dive trips to areas rich with these colorful sea slugs, I was astounded to see 32 new (for me) species in Komodo. Following are a selection of my favorite shots and the most vibrant and interesting of the species.

First, my favorite Nudi of the trip. The aptly named Magnificent Ceratosoma. If you look close on the first shot, there is a rider, a LadyBug Isopod, and more of them in the upper left of the frame. There are also a couple other riders in other photos, see if you can spot them. The marine life is so dense that many shots I took had other creatures somewhere in the frame.

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Next, the rarest and tiniest of the Nudis we saw, the Donut Nubibranch. These oddballs were only about 1/3 of an inch end to end
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An assortment of other species
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Part 2. There is a 25 image maximum per post I didn't know about.


Certainly the strangest nudibranch Ive ever seen. A divemaster called me over on a night dive to show me this one and I didn't even know what I was taking a picture of
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Most nudis move at a snail's pace (as you might expect) but this one was quickly flashing her skirt up and down, as you see in this series.
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Even the eggs of Nidibranchs are unusual and colorful.
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And here is where the eggs start. Nudis in compromised positions.
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Finally, another magnificent example of the species, this Spanish Dancer is nearly 10 inches long, huge for a nudibranch, and when disturbed it will swim to a new location. I caught this one swimming during a night dive and you can see how it got its name.
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Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
I wanna be there…
 
Wow. Simply amazing shots, thanks for sharing.
How close do you get to the nudis for those shots?
Do you use a lot of post shot editing?

Thanks.
 
Stunning shots Saudio, well done

What lenses are you using?
 
Wow. Simply amazing shots, thanks for sharing.
How close do you get to the nudis for those shots?
Do you use a lot of post shot editing?

Thanks.

thanks, and thanks to everyone.

I do relatively little editing, but I do do some. I usually try Auto Levels, and on about 1 out of 5 shots that improves the shot, on the rest I undo that. I usually don't have to crop Nudi shots, but I will if it needs it. Then, I will do some slight and selective sharpening, usually just to the face or eyes. Again, not needed often on Nudi shots. On the Spanish Dancer dancing shots, I did some backscatter removal to the black background.

---------- Post added November 19th, 2012 at 08:44 AM ----------

Stunning shots Saudio, well done

What lenses are you using?

Thank you! For macro, I use either a Canon 100mm Macro lens, or I use the Canon 18-55 kit zoom lens depending on what other subjects I expect to encounter on a dive. When in doubt, I take the 18-55 because I can do everything from moderate macro to moderate WA with one lens. With either of these lenses, I always have a SubSee 10X diopter on a swing mount so I can go super macro on the 100, and real macro with the 18-55 any time I want to.

The 18-55 lens with the diopter was used for most of these shots, but I do remember using the 100mm with diopter for the Donut Nudi shots. Those thing were TINY.

My rig, by the way, is a 7D with a Nauticam housing, with Z240's
 
Simply stunning !!!

Komodo is on my bucket list, perhaps it has just moved up a few slots .....
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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