Nudibranchs

Nonoy Tan · Issue 22, Jan/Feb 2005 · pp. 41–44

Products mentioned: Nikon F70, Nikon F100, Nikon F4, Nikon F5, Nikon F6, 105mm lens, 60mm lens, Ikelite 200 substrobes, Nexus housing, Fujichrome Velvia RVP135

With so many beautiful photographic subjects in the reef, I have been tempted in the past to press the camera shutter indiscriminately. While this had provided me a variety of images, I soon noticed that it lacked the distinctiveness or uniqueness that I was looking for. Consequently, I decided to specialize and pay closer attention to nudibranchs, which are locally abundant in my country, the Philippines. Bearing in mind the large number of species and varieties available, there was no shortage of subjects. Soon enough, my fascination for them had blossomed into an even more specialized level of interest, i.e. capturing images of nudibranch behavior. Considering the slow locomotion of nudibranchs, I had previously assumed that it should be very easy taking photographs of their activities. But after several attempts, I realized that I was wrong. While most nudibranchs cannot crawl or swi…