Heart of the Hunter – Part 2
Yesterday, I dumped a bunch of images on your screen that I’m preparing for an article for Niugini Blue magazine. The title will be Heart of the Hunter. Look back at my post from yesterday to read all of my blather about that.
Today, we’ll just look at some of the rest of the images that I’m submitting.
You’ve seen the Spotted Shrimpgoby (Amblyeleotris guttata) here before. I’ve even managed to get shots showing the commensal shrimp that lives in the same burrow. I spent about fifteen minutes sneaking up on this scene to get the fish along with two of the shrimps Alpheus ochrostriatus:
The timing here is very tricky. I could see that there were two shrimps living with the fish in the burrow, but it took a lot of patience to wait until both of them came out at once, pushing sand in front of them as if they were tiny bulldozers. The Spotted Shrimpgoby appeared previously here and here. If you get too close or make a sudden move, they all pop back in the hole in a flash.
Stalking relatively immobile critters is easier. You’ve seen this nudibranch (Notodoris minor) here before several times (put notodoris in the search box):
In this shot, I think I’ve finally figured out how to get the subtle bumps and curves of the body of the beastie to show clearly. The thing is so bright and so monochromatic that you can’t really see this much detail with the naked eye. It’s an interesting example of how a photographic image can show you details that you can’t see with your eyes. Underwater, this critter looks pretty much like a blob of bright yellow with black stripes. It’s very hard to make out any detail.
I shot this image of the Spotted Porcelain Crab (Neopetrolisthes maculata) a couple of years ago with my previous UW camera, an Olympus C8080:
Though there a lot of variables that I can’t account for, it’s still interesting to compare the Olympus shot with this one of the same species shot last week with my current outfit, a Canon G10:
As I said, there are too many variables to make a direct comparison, but it certainly looks as if I’ve lost nothing in the change.
This shot of a Spotted Garden Eel (Heteroconger hassi) is one that I must admit makes me feel almost like a pro:
It’s not so much that it’s technically perfect – it isn’t. However, if you understand the behaviour of these eels, you will appreciate how difficult it is to get a good, clear close-up. The garden eel is usually found in mobs sticking up out of the sand. That’s all well and good – and quite pretty. However, when you approach them, they all pull back down into their holes; it’s their best defense. To get this close to one requires Job-like patience and a full tank of air. I cheated a little by easing a bit of telephoto into my lens, something which is normally useless underwater, since there is always too much stuff floating around. I also had to do an enlargement trick (the multiple 110% enlargement method, in case you’re a Photoshop fan) to get the image big enough to crop out the middle and still have good detail. I’d guess that the front of my camera was about a half-metre from the eel.
Look, he’s winking at me.
Related posts:
- Heart of the Hunter – Part 1 I'm tied up writing an article for Niugini Blue, so I'm killing two birds with one bullet by giving you a preview of images I'm submitting and some of the text....
- Wrapping Up 2009 I may as well wrap up 2009 by doing what I do best - pretending to be an expert at everything. I don't think that I'm fooling anybody, but it's fun....
- The Dreaded Sticky Thong and Other Curiosities Picture a thong covered with a very nasty substance. Got your attention? I warn you. It may not be what you think. In fact, I would bet on it....
- More Underwater Canon G10 Shots from the Eel Garden I’ve had time to work up some more Canon G10 images from the dive on Saturday at the Eel Garden near Pig Island. I’m still a little disbelieving at what’s coming out of this relatively cheap camera. It makes me wonder what we’ll be able to do in another five...
- He Got Hair Down To His Knee The Beatles "Come Together" has been wafting around in my head all morning. I can still sing the song from memory, start to end. I haven't a clue what it means....
- Sunset Dreaming Here are two more critters from Planet Rock, a couple of sunrises, and a friend dreaming in the sunset....
- Images That Were Nearly Discarded – Bad Fish Following my own advice to never discard an image just because it's garbage, I now present shots transformed from bad photography into funky art....
Love these beasties! Those Spotted Porcelain are really beautiful. Having spent half a hour above water trying to catch a shy lizard, I tip my hat to you for some of these below-water catches!
It’s hunting at it’s best, mate. Your most perfect bull’s eye shot doesn’t harm a living thing, but you get to put the hide in front of the fireplace anyway.
I like your metaphor. It reminds of something—was it CS Lewis, an essay or one of his fictions?—where he talks about how eating, transformed by light and love, becomes not a consumption of another, but the deepest kind of giving and taking and sharing, without harm, but rather ultimate joy and communion.
Maybe this higher sense of eating (not consumption, which destroys) is pointed to in passages like, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Or, when Jesus said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Or once Ramakrishna said, “I don’t want to be the sugar, I want to eat the sugar” his way of saying he didn’t want to disappear or be absorbed into his Beloved, but to taste His Beloved forever.
Myself, I’ve always been in that camp, the taster of the Love that Love Us, as I like to call the divine. And anyway, It’s only the human mind says union with God has to mean disappearance of the individual. The human mind just can’t grok it, but I’m pretty sure the Infinite that is Love can handle it just fine.
The first quotation seems very animistic to me, not that that’s a bad thing. It reminds me of Heinlein’s novel, Stranger In a Strange Land.
Your last paragaph, Heinlein again!
Wow Jan!!!!!!!!!!!! I really am impressed with your shot of the eel. They are almost impossible to capture. Have their numbers improved again?
Yes, Val, there do seem to be more of them around. There are even a few back at the Eel Garden. It’s nice to get a comment from someone who knows how difficult it is to get close to them.
Wait until you see your shots of India. You’ll be very happy.
Jan