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Clownfish in Anenome

Scanned slide from a glorious week scuba diving in Papua New Guinea.
Camera was a Sea & Sea Motormarine II. No auto focus....you focused via distance from the subject. No shutter speed control. But I did get to set aperture! LOL! I also used dual strobes.
Clownfish are very territorial and this little guy was in a stare down with me. Only after viewing the slide on screen did I see another creature on the right side. Can you find him?
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Lifetime Member
Hi Karen, I remember the motormarine well - in fact I still wake up some nights in a cold sweat!
Nice little peeking pose through the anemone, typical of these little characters, and the open mouth is a nice touch. Technically, the motormarine lens wasn't the best, so to be critical over IQ is harsh, I think you've done well here. The coral shrimp is a nice touch - I've done the same loads of times - there's enough to be thinking about down there without looking for secondary subjects!
With anemonefish I find the best approach is to stay above the anemone, framing it as you think best. The anemonefish rarely leaves his host under these conditions, and as long as your buddy isn't in a hurry, you can pretty much guarantee the fish will eventually swim into a nice position, giving you the opportunity to get your shot. In this shot, you have lots of the red skirt on show - with this type of bubble anemone I usually prefer more of the tentacles unless I can get lower to show the skirt at the bottom - not always possible given where they like to stay.
Mike
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Thanks for your comments, Mike! Doing underwater photography was a real learning experience for me. BTW - I still have the Sea & Sea camera. It took photos on land also. Very handy!
In my ignorance, I liked the fact that the anenome was showing some "red skirt" (I had no idea how to refer to it!) in addition to the tentacles. BTW - this is full frame, uncropped.
If you have PP suggestions to improve IQ, I'll happily take them. Perhaps I actually created IQ problems with my processing.
In the raw, the tentacles are "smoother"..... Perhaps I'll try again and post a second version.
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Still not great, but I think this is better......gosh the OP looks horrible! LOL!
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Lifetime Member
The RP is a lot more natural looking
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The re-post is beautiful, such an extraordinary scene, well done. Also, the composition is superb.
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sorry for the awful OP......!
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Lifetime Member
Hi Karen - It's always fun to see some underwater images and bring a bit of variety to the forum. Nice vibrant colors. RP is an improvement. Between the difficulties of underwater photography and starting from a scanned image, I think you did well.
TFS,
Rachel
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Wonderful image improved on the repost. Great colors, lighting and composition. This is underwater life as I imagine it should be photographed. Great job.
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Hi Karen -- A very beautiful image , well done onm capturing this , i certainly like the RP, pls keep them coming ! TFS
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Thanks for the encouragement! I'm still trying to get the egg off my face from the OP!