You are browsing archives for
Marty’s photo of the day #4920: Look closely. Freckled goatfish hunt using their chin barbels to probe the sand for worms, crustaceans, and mollusks, and other prey. Photographed last month in the Raja Ampat region of Indonesian New Guinea.
Marty’s photo of the day #4919: See the orange fuzzy-looking things? They are Christmas tree worms! There are some blue and green ones too. Also in this photo are sea squirts and coral. Photographed last month in the Raja Ampat region of Indonesian New Guinea.
I didn’t get a bluegirdled angelfish photo that was good enough to print or make my photo of the day, but I’m sharing it anyway, because I’m doing the final-final-final-final read-through of my latest novel, The Silver Squad Rides Again, and am easily distracted. Photographed last month in the Raja Ampat region of Indonesian New […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4917: I remember the first time I tried snorkeling. It was early in Deb’s and my marriage, and it didn’t go well. One thing I remember from my brief time in the water was all the incredible colors, brighter than I’d ever seen before. Now that I’m comfortable snorkeling, I […]
Here come the bottlenose dolphins! Deb and I swam with bottlenose dolphins last month. Getting up early, we took the dinghy from The Katharina to an area where the dolphins were known to hang out. For most of the time the dolphins were shy. They sank into the murky water and only surfaced when necessary […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4916: I love the challenge of wildlife photography, whether it is on land or in the water. Even among all the colorful and unusual fish on the reefs of the Raja Ampat, foxface rabbitfish stand out. They weren’t a common sight, and when I saw them, they were frustrating to […]
Heading out at sunrise to swim with bottlenose dolphins. Photographed last month in the Raja Ampat of Indonesian New Guinea.
Marty’s photo of the day #4915: This is a Pacific bluetail skink. Photographed last month in the Raja Ampat of Indonesian New Guinea.
Marty’s photo of the day #4914: This is an orange anemonefish (sometimes called an orange skunk anemonefish) with a Merten’s anemone. If you have access to “Reef Fish Identification: Tropical Pacific” look it up. The photo in that book is virtually identical to my photo taken last month in the Raja Ampat of Indonesian New […]
Many of the smaller islands in the Raja Ampat of Indonesian New Guinea are “bat islands.” I shot this series of photos as we approached one of those islands. It was teaming with flying foxes. Since we were returning from a stop at a waterfall, I only had my underwater camera with me. I would […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4911: Moorish idols are plentiful in the Raja Ampat of Indonesian New Guinea. Photographing them, however, was difficult, because they’d turn away at the last moment, and their mouths were often out of focus or lost in the shadows. It wasn’t until my last snorkel (roughly #30), that I captured […]
While in the Raja Ampat of Indonesian New Guinea, I often explored crevices in the volcanic rock formations along the ocean shore. My usual finds were colorful crabs and lizards, but I also found this sea krait (a venomous snake with a paddle-shaped tail). Sea kraits must leave the water to digest their meals, so […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4910: For yesterday’s photo of the day, I featured a bluespotted grouper that produced the illusion of bioluminescence. Today’s photo is even more extreme. These redfin butterflyfish appeared to be bioluminescent near their pectoral fins. But again, it’s an illusion. Instead, they have fluorescent pigments in their skin that absorb […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4909: Many of the fish I observed in the Raja Ampat of Indonesian New Guinea appeared to produce their own light. For most of those fish, including this bluespotted grouper, the bioluminescence was an illusion. Bluespotted groupers, however, can change colors for camouflage.
Marty’s photo of the day #4908: This is a silky owl butterfly. Photographed last month in the Raja Ampat of Indonesian New Guinea.
Marty’s photo of the day #4906: The key to making a dramatic crab photo is to get low and shoot from an interesting angle. Photographed last month in the Raja Ampat of Indonesian New Guinea.
Marty’s photo of the day #4905: This is a spinecheek anemonefish. Because the Raja Ampat of Indonesian New Guinea supports the greatest number of fish species in the world, Deb and I ended up seeing more species of anemonefish than we knew existed. One of my goals during our snorkels was to shoot a frameable […]
I’m concluding my “Bugs of Indonesian New Guinea” day with a weird sight from Deb’s and my rainforest night hike. Is it a spider molting? Is it two spiders fighting? Or two spiders mating? I’m still not sure. But it/they were big. Photographed last month in the Raja Ampat of Indonesian New Guinea.
No matter what kind of device you are viewing this crab on, you are seeing it at much larger than real life. Found in a hole of a large volcanic rock at the edge of the ocean, this crab is no larger than the tip of your index finger. Photographed last month in the Raja […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4903: The bright colors of checkerboard wrasses made them stand out—even among all the other colorful fish on the reef. Photographed last month in the Raja Ampat of Indonesian New Guinea.
