BonsaiNut
Premium Member
In another thread people posted this photo:
There was some heated discussion about whether the photo was true to life - the reds appear almost artificial they are so intense. I had a copy of this photo from another location, and managed to track the photo back to the person who took it - Scott Johnson - who lives in the Marshall Islands and who I talk anemones with. I sent him a note asking for more info on the photo, and he not only responded, but sent some other great shots of red/orange/pink S. haddonis that he had. Here is his response, as well as his other great photos:
I did take that red S. haddoni shot. It came from my web site under one of the video pages. Mostly I shoot video now--my wife does the stills. One of my older videos, shot with a combination of Hi8 and standard DV, is called Kwajalein Underwater and a few frame captured stills from that video can be seen at http://www.underwaterkwaj.com/dvd1/dvd1.htm. Was it really that color? Probably not quite. It is bright red, but the real color cannot be captured with a still camera and strobe. This anemone is down at about 70' depth on a lagoon slope, deeper than you should be able to see red. But you can. It used to puzzle me that I could occasionally see reds and oranges much deeper than I should have been able to. There is a small solitary fungiid (razor) coral out here that occasionally shows up as bright, glowing orange on the decks of shipwrecks at 130'. I finally read somewhere that some of these animals absorb some of the blue wavelengths of light, then radiate them out again as different wavelengths, sometimes giving you these reds and oranges at depths no sunlight of that color can reach. Anyway, this anemone is bright red down there at 70', but, like the orange fungiids, if you take a flash photo of it, the color just about vanishes. I get these color shots of it using the video camera with available light, a color correcting red filter, and the white balance feature of the camera. The white balance helps, and I did not have access to it in the housing on my last camera, which was used to take the haddoni picture you sent. Without my control over white balance, the old camera tended to oversaturate in some cases. A probably more realistic image of that particular specimen is the top image on http://www.underwaterkwaj.com/uw-misc/clowns/Stichodactyla-haddoni.htm. The red ones are rare, but I know of at least 2 that are very red, a few more with some red, and a couple of pretty bright pink ones. Attached are a few more video captures of this and the other very red specimen along with one of the bright pinks. One shot shows the very red one undergoing some bleaching in the fall of 2009 when a few corals and all the Heteractis magnifica bleached out. Interestingly, they do change sometimes. The pink one in particular has varied from rather dull to bright pink.
Ok back to me
Some great photos from Scott and a pretty detailed description of why it is hard to get a completely accurate color photo of anemones at depth. I recently posted links to photos on Scott's site on another thread, and some of the members here have bought his DVD's before and have great things to say. No I don't work with him but if you are in the market you might check out some of his work.
There was some heated discussion about whether the photo was true to life - the reds appear almost artificial they are so intense. I had a copy of this photo from another location, and managed to track the photo back to the person who took it - Scott Johnson - who lives in the Marshall Islands and who I talk anemones with. I sent him a note asking for more info on the photo, and he not only responded, but sent some other great shots of red/orange/pink S. haddonis that he had. Here is his response, as well as his other great photos:
I did take that red S. haddoni shot. It came from my web site under one of the video pages. Mostly I shoot video now--my wife does the stills. One of my older videos, shot with a combination of Hi8 and standard DV, is called Kwajalein Underwater and a few frame captured stills from that video can be seen at http://www.underwaterkwaj.com/dvd1/dvd1.htm. Was it really that color? Probably not quite. It is bright red, but the real color cannot be captured with a still camera and strobe. This anemone is down at about 70' depth on a lagoon slope, deeper than you should be able to see red. But you can. It used to puzzle me that I could occasionally see reds and oranges much deeper than I should have been able to. There is a small solitary fungiid (razor) coral out here that occasionally shows up as bright, glowing orange on the decks of shipwrecks at 130'. I finally read somewhere that some of these animals absorb some of the blue wavelengths of light, then radiate them out again as different wavelengths, sometimes giving you these reds and oranges at depths no sunlight of that color can reach. Anyway, this anemone is bright red down there at 70', but, like the orange fungiids, if you take a flash photo of it, the color just about vanishes. I get these color shots of it using the video camera with available light, a color correcting red filter, and the white balance feature of the camera. The white balance helps, and I did not have access to it in the housing on my last camera, which was used to take the haddoni picture you sent. Without my control over white balance, the old camera tended to oversaturate in some cases. A probably more realistic image of that particular specimen is the top image on http://www.underwaterkwaj.com/uw-misc/clowns/Stichodactyla-haddoni.htm. The red ones are rare, but I know of at least 2 that are very red, a few more with some red, and a couple of pretty bright pink ones. Attached are a few more video captures of this and the other very red specimen along with one of the bright pinks. One shot shows the very red one undergoing some bleaching in the fall of 2009 when a few corals and all the Heteractis magnifica bleached out. Interestingly, they do change sometimes. The pink one in particular has varied from rather dull to bright pink.
Ok back to me
Some great photos from Scott and a pretty detailed description of why it is hard to get a completely accurate color photo of anemones at depth. I recently posted links to photos on Scott's site on another thread, and some of the members here have bought his DVD's before and have great things to say. No I don't work with him but if you are in the market you might check out some of his work.
