Tag: spanish shawl
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This Spanish Shawl is the Goldilocks of Nudibranchs
In unpredictable surge and weird currents, it’s a challenge and a half to get a Spanish Shawl photo “just right.”
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Macro Mania
I love shooting wide angle. When the water is clear, there is nothing more gratifying than that fisheye lens and dome port. Wrecks. Kelp forests. Big animals. Coral reefs. And people. Wide angle means context, and people love context. People identify with the scene. They like seeing themselves, or people like themselves, in the frame.…
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Dreamy Nudibranch
The kelp forest can be a pretty dreamy place. The light coming through the kelp canopy has an ethereal beauty, and the gentle sway of the kelp stalks in light surge could rock you to sleep. I wanted to capture that surreal, unearthly quality in this week’s nudibranch photos.
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The Sea of Cortez is Riddled with Nudibranchs
Being the kiss of death that I am when it comes to dive trips and good conditions, I shouldn’t have been surprised when we arrived in the Sea of Cortez to find cold, green, murky, Socal-esque water. For months prior to the trip, I entertained fantasies of seeing whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, orcas, manta rays,…
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Diving San Diego’s Wreck Alley and Kelp Forest
I spent Memorial Day diving with my friends at San Diego dive boat Marissa Charters in Wreck Alley and the Point Loma kelp beds. It’s always nice to be out on the boat, but Monday was amazing! We had great weather topside and pretty good visibility out on our dives! HMCS Yukon HMCS Yukon is a…
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When the visibility gets tough, the tough find nudibranchs
San Diego Nudibranchs A swell that has been plaguing the San Diego coastline with rough surf (seemingly forever…) finally subsided late last week, just in time for our scheduled Easter Sunday boat dive. Visibility was severely compromised, though, as a result of the extended period of rough ocean conditions. The water was green and murky……
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Nudibranchs: Spanish Shawl Nudibranch
After more than a month out of the water, and two months out of the cold California water, I finally got to go diving again! We spent the weekend on the Horizon dive boat diving San Clemente Island and the kelp beds of Point Loma, San Diego. I saw lots of sea lions and a…
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Diving the California Oil Rigs, Part 2
(See Diving the California Oil Rigs, Part 1 here.) This is the Spanish Shawl, a nudibranch (type of sea slug) common to Southern California. It’s tiny, only about one or two inches long. The orange appendages on its back are called cerata, which assist both in respiration and in digestion. They also store the stinging…