Hi everyone.
I mentioned in the thread in my forum that I took this photo on an atoll called Karang Koka in the Tukang Besi archipelago in Sulawesi Indonesia before the 9ICRS Bali conference. I was diving with Dr. Helmut Schumacher as my dive buddy, and Mike Kirda was with us, too. He saw the shots as we came out of the water and dried off.
The photo was taken using a Nikon CoolPix 990 in an Ikelite digital underwater housing. The image was put into Photoshop and the autocorrect function used to adjust the photo. I don't use any other tools on my photos, and would never color or otherwise "enhance" a photo. This is the equivalent of normal darkroom procedures adjusting how far you "push" film. I love the shot so much I have it framed on my office wall, and I can assure you I wouldnt frame a photo I "faked."
I have the raw image, and the the colors are the same. It was a near perfect shot as it was (not often this happens!), so autocorrect really didn't do much at all. However, the original shot was from further back, so when we used this image, I had to cut out the clownfish from the anemone and blow it up a couple hunded percent. No alterations were ever done beyond that. Be happy to post the raw unedited photo as a small image here if anyone wants to see the orignal - ;-)
I don't know much about the color patterns of clownfish other than what I see in stores, so until you guys brought this thread up, I never knew it was unusual. I just always thought it to be one of my better photos. Good to know!