Octopus in Bottle

First of all, I would like to say thank you to underwater photography master, Yoshi Hirata, for leading me to this Coconut Octopus.

It's my first time to see an octopus staying in a glass bottle. At first, by instinct, I positioned my two strobes facing toward the bottle straightly. I was so naive thinking the light would only illuminate the octopus. In fact, the bottle lip was totally overexposed by this strobe positioning.

After few shots, I found out it didn't work out and then realized that the bottle is translucent. I stretched the strobe arms and placed two strobes on the both sides of the bottle to light up the octopus staying in the middle of the bottle. Even though the bottle lip is very dark by this setting, I like this kind of output compares to overexposure.

After this shooting experience, I always try this strobe positioning when I want to take pictures of creatures staying in translucent subjects, like below, the goby in the bottle and the shrimp in the tunicate.

My first Sea Spider

That was a weekend in February, I went diving again with Fun and Sun in Mactan area. The second dive was Talima, Olango Island. This island is only 10-15 minutes away from Mactan by banca, but the marine diversity is better than Mactan Coast. 10 minutes after jumping into the water, we were in the depth of 15 meters. I saw something "crawling" at an area where some soft corals are. I took a closer look and found out is a sea spider(Anoplodactylus sp.) which is half-transparent body with blue spots.

I am not sure if sea spider is rare in this area, and as I remember, that was my second time to see this kind of sea creature. This is my first time to take some clearer pictures.

The following pictures were taken in two dives on that day. I used Panasonic GF1+45mm macro lens, FIT+10 & FIT+5, and Sea&Sea YS-D1 single strobe:

My First Encounter of Emperor Shrimp

Seeing many pictures of Emperor Shrimp shared on the internet, I had wanted to photograph them for a long time. I tried to find them when I went to Cabilao Island and Dauin, but I couldn't meet any of them.

It was a common diving day trip with Fun and Sun in Mactan. The first dive site was Shangri-La's. I saw a big sea cucumber in the depth of 19 meters. I was trying to find something like sea cucumber crab on it, but I saw a tiny white spot moving. I took a closer look and found out it's an Emperor Shrimp. It's an Emperor Shrimp!! The shrimp I wanted to see badly. I didn't expect to see this colorful shrimp in Mactan where I dive at least one time every month.

After this one, I found another Emperor Shrimp on another cucumber in three minutes. I was so excited. I hope they can expand their family, and maybe one day I can also take pictures of parents with their kids.

Seeing wanted creatures in unexpected places, at unexpected times is also one of the interesting parts of SCUBA diving. That's why we always want to hit the water to stay underwater more and more.

Other pictures on that day: