Octopus

[Andrew McLachlan]

While on the Caribbean island of Cayman Brac I spent a significant amount of time snorkeling in the sea. One day I was trying to steady myself in a swift current by reaching out for a flat rock...the rock moved and out shot this small Octopus that was about a foot in length when it swam. Fortunately it only swam a short distance before coming to rest on the sea floor in about 6 feet of water.

Using my Sony RX100 (in its RAW mode) in a dedicated housing with ambient light I created numerous images until it swam to a less photogenic area. The white balance was set to auto, but required significant tweaks in ACR to get the colors I was seeing.

Sony RX100
28-100mm lens @ 28mm
ISO 400
f8 @ 1/800 sec

Look forward to comments.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andrew - Welcome back and great to see an underwater species. We get so few of those. Hard to tell on color without being there but there seems to be a magenta and red cast to the sand too. Overall nice sharpness and exposure both of which aren't easy to do in swift current and changing light. I like the textures coming through and the sense of movement too. Maybe a little more selective sharpening? Overall definitely a fun encounter and image.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andrew, I can only echo Rachel's comment, nice to have you back.

Good to see you had no leaks, but great to see a different dimension in Wildlife photography. I would try to bring out the light more, as it conveys the rays of the sun. Not sure if this tweak helps as I'm away, but hope it moves things in the right direction?

TFS
Steve

[dankearl]

Fantastic, Andrew.
I would love to do this kind of photography, I just can't justify a housing for the times I would use it.
The Octopus looks great, I can't comment on the color, but it appears natural to me.

[Don Railton]

HI Andrew

This looks great.. especially considering the difficult conditions you took it under. I like the stare you are getting...he/she is not happy they were disturbed. Octopus I think can change their colour to the local environment. As a 'by the way', if you ever get to snorkel in Australia and find an Octopus covered in pretty blue rings, be careful, they are poisonous.

DON

[John Robinson]

Do 'nt know about the colour but this looks like there;s no water there !
Amazingly clear . You,d hardly know it was there.Nice to see something different.
Good one.
JohnR

[Loi Nguyen]

Andreas, wildlife photography at 28mm is something we don't get to see often,e specially under water. I have no idea the colours, but I see the magenta and red cast that Rachel mentioned. I prefer Steve's RP, but have no idea how close it is to the scene. TFS. Loi

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Andrew,

very nice image and something different as well About the colors I have no idea either. The RP from Steve, looks good to me as well, you have been there you know.

Have a great week

Ciao
Anette

[Nancy Bell]

Awesome subject and in a nice position for the camera! Steve's repost seems to make the details a bit stronger, especially the designs on the octopus.

[gail bisson]

I think this is really cool.
Very different and very appealing.
I cannot comment on the colors as I have no idea what it looked like in real life.
I just really like the pose of the octopus and the great details,
gail

[Andrew McLachlan]

Thanks for the comments folks...I guess the good thing is that since Octopus can change colors very quickly it could be anything goes...but I do have a tendency to miss magenta color casts...I would have to say that Steve's repost is the most accurate representation.

I am swamped at my day job at the moment, but will post more underwater imagery this weekend...I had good luck with Stingrays and some Parrotfish species too.

[Morkel Erasmus]

It's not often we see a mollusk in this gallery, Andrew
You've received some good builds already - I hope there are more images to come!