Crocodilefish Face

[Bruce Enns]

This is the face of a Crocodilefish from one of the reefs frequented by divers at the Wakatobi Dive Resort in Sulawesi Indonesia. It shows the incredible patterns that these fish can create with the chromatophores (pigment cells) in their skin. These chromatophores give the fish the ability to change colour to resemble their environment, change colour for courting, etc. Similar cells are found in other animals such as reptiles, squids, octopus and others. A distinguidhing feature of the crocodilefish as mentioned in Jay Gould's crocodilefish post, is the "iris lappet that forms a branching curtain over much of the upper eye", which can be seen here and also much closer in the Crocodilefish Eye post in the Macro and Flora forum.

Canon Rebel XT in an Ikelite housing with Ikelite DS125 and DS50 strobes in E-TTL mode, Canon 60mm EF-S lens, AV mode, ISO 100, 1/200s, f/16.

Comments and critiques are welcome and much appreciated. Thanks for looking!

Cheers!
Bruce

[thijs broekkamp]

Just awesome!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

This is great mate! I love it. Nice tight portrait with perfect comp.

We call these Flatheads in Oz. I have an image to post of just the eye of one soon, from Sydney. It's a Rock Flathead. Though the eyelids are just like your one. :)

Thanks for sharing Bruce. :)

[Robert Amoruso]

Great DOF on this one Bruce and again I like the use of a diagonal in the image.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Bruce,
I like this one. I like the composition. The depth of field is good. I enjoyed the information provided. Look forward to more.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Alfred Forns]

Love the close up Bruce, they have a compelling face and great seeing those eyes !!