Reef Bass
colors and textures
Ok, now I realize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that what excites me isn't necessary what excites you. And that's ok. That's why Baskin-Robins started with 31 flavors.
Plus photography is an evolutionary thing, and while what I perceive as my best image to date may well be eclipsed by something tomorow, I am very proud of this image.
While I admit to consuming some mediocre cab (I'm trying to adhere to a conceptual budget. I've been significatntly affected by the economy.) while post processing, the image was captured before I opened that bottle.
This image scores a 9.5 for my personal images. I never give 10s and I as age I realize that while 10 is a theorectical perfection, one has to bend to the practical situation.
The only other images I've seen on this site to which I will score 10 (remember Nadia Comanchi?) are those of Gary Parr whose combines focus stacking (everything is in focus) with my most outrageous of possible subjects, various trachophyllia and other similar lps with stupendous colors and textures.
And not to dis the works of masters such as beerguy, rbaker and sometimes TitusvilleSurfer. Also masters in their fields whose images in that field I also give a 10.
Anyway, with all that probably excessive and unwelcome verbosity out of the way, here it is:
What it is impossible for you the viewer to appreciate is the timing of this image. It is so rare for me to be in the right place at the right time, to have my camera mounted to a tripod at that time and be focused on a subject is veritably unheard of. I should have bought lottery tickets today.
I was taking pictures of some of my acans. They combine the color and texture thing for me and really help quench my macro thirst.
Normally my purple tang is my arch enemy when it comes to macro reef photography. He sees my long black macro lens (particularly if I have my lens hood attached) as a real threat to his reef and he lets me know it.
In this particular instance he was leaving me and the subject (this acan) alone. I had removed my lens hood and was willing to sacrifice possible extraneous light sources for lack of aggression on the tang's part. He often blocks the shot entirely with his body and often vigorously fins water onto the subject trying to drive away my intruding camera and lens.
I probably wouldn't mind so much if he payed my electric bill, but he doesn't, so as much as I admire and marvel at what a fabulous specimen of a purple tang he is, he just plain irritates me while I'm taking pictures.
Much to my dismay, a most unusual source of disruption occurred. A bumblebee snail happened to slug up the rock onto which I had placed the acan for picture taking. It reached out with its chemo sensing snoot and touched what you see here as the hyper extended acan polyp, which at the time was rather diminutive in a new polyp kind of way. Both the snail snoot and the acan polyp retreated / retracted immediately. The snail turned around 180 degrees and slugged down the rock and off to another destination.
The acan polyp paused for about 5 seconds, and then as I watched on my 15" laptop screen in essentially high definition (I was shooting remotely), it rapidly (for an acan) hyper / over inflated that polyp. I snapped a picture when it seemed it was done (no point in shooting a long exposure when the subject is moving) and while I was setting up for another shot, it deflated that polyp back to normal proportions. I may never witness such a thing, let alone photograph it, again.
Plus this image is my first Photoshop CS4 production. I had purchased Elements from Amazon and 3 months later received an invitation to purchase full on CS4 at $300 off which I couldn't refuse.
I apologize for the more significant signature / watermark but I found a bunch of my images on Google images the other day and I want to more securely embed my stamp on my images.
Plus photography is an evolutionary thing, and while what I perceive as my best image to date may well be eclipsed by something tomorow, I am very proud of this image.
While I admit to consuming some mediocre cab (I'm trying to adhere to a conceptual budget. I've been significatntly affected by the economy.) while post processing, the image was captured before I opened that bottle.
This image scores a 9.5 for my personal images. I never give 10s and I as age I realize that while 10 is a theorectical perfection, one has to bend to the practical situation.
The only other images I've seen on this site to which I will score 10 (remember Nadia Comanchi?) are those of Gary Parr whose combines focus stacking (everything is in focus) with my most outrageous of possible subjects, various trachophyllia and other similar lps with stupendous colors and textures.
And not to dis the works of masters such as beerguy, rbaker and sometimes TitusvilleSurfer. Also masters in their fields whose images in that field I also give a 10.
Anyway, with all that probably excessive and unwelcome verbosity out of the way, here it is:
What it is impossible for you the viewer to appreciate is the timing of this image. It is so rare for me to be in the right place at the right time, to have my camera mounted to a tripod at that time and be focused on a subject is veritably unheard of. I should have bought lottery tickets today.
I was taking pictures of some of my acans. They combine the color and texture thing for me and really help quench my macro thirst.
Normally my purple tang is my arch enemy when it comes to macro reef photography. He sees my long black macro lens (particularly if I have my lens hood attached) as a real threat to his reef and he lets me know it.
In this particular instance he was leaving me and the subject (this acan) alone. I had removed my lens hood and was willing to sacrifice possible extraneous light sources for lack of aggression on the tang's part. He often blocks the shot entirely with his body and often vigorously fins water onto the subject trying to drive away my intruding camera and lens.
I probably wouldn't mind so much if he payed my electric bill, but he doesn't, so as much as I admire and marvel at what a fabulous specimen of a purple tang he is, he just plain irritates me while I'm taking pictures.
Much to my dismay, a most unusual source of disruption occurred. A bumblebee snail happened to slug up the rock onto which I had placed the acan for picture taking. It reached out with its chemo sensing snoot and touched what you see here as the hyper extended acan polyp, which at the time was rather diminutive in a new polyp kind of way. Both the snail snoot and the acan polyp retreated / retracted immediately. The snail turned around 180 degrees and slugged down the rock and off to another destination.
The acan polyp paused for about 5 seconds, and then as I watched on my 15" laptop screen in essentially high definition (I was shooting remotely), it rapidly (for an acan) hyper / over inflated that polyp. I snapped a picture when it seemed it was done (no point in shooting a long exposure when the subject is moving) and while I was setting up for another shot, it deflated that polyp back to normal proportions. I may never witness such a thing, let alone photograph it, again.
Plus this image is my first Photoshop CS4 production. I had purchased Elements from Amazon and 3 months later received an invitation to purchase full on CS4 at $300 off which I couldn't refuse.
I apologize for the more significant signature / watermark but I found a bunch of my images on Google images the other day and I want to more securely embed my stamp on my images.
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