Exhaling Triggerfish

[Mike Poole]

I've always had a little trouble getting close at the right angle to these little Picasso Triggerfish. They've always tended to turn away when you get close. I spotted this one doing a behaviour I'd not witnessed before - it was sucking on the hard coral, then exhaling all the sand through its mouth and gills, which looked quite cool. He seemed to pre-occupied with this to care about me and swam along the reef allowing me to swim alongside him. I managed to get ahead of him and he turned towards me and did one of his exhales and i got a couple of frames, this being my favourite.

Can 1dx in a Nauticam housing
Canon 100mm L macro
ISO 400
1/200th f18
twin Sea & Sea YS-D1 strobes

Mike

[William Dickson]

Beautiful Mike. All the exhaled sand looks real good and gives the image depth. Lovely detail and colours on the fish. I like the pose and the position of the eye. Nice one. Reminds me of when I used to keep discus fish.

Will

[Glenn Pure]

Great work Mike and a really lovely image, well captured. I think it's going to take a long time before I get bored with these. Colours and detaila look great to me and the composition works well, I think. What can I say: keep them coming!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Mike ....awesome stuff !!!!!!!!!
These guys are so special and full of character IMHO ,at least when kept in captivity .I kept this species myself .
Love the behavior captured, when they blow the sand or coral left overs through their .....? Do not know the english name .
I agree that the sand blown backwards, adds a nice depth to the frame. Comp , colors and overall tone/ contrast are well done .
What i might try is either pushing the fish forward or the BG backward in contrast , i would try to use negative clarity on the BG and brush it in .

Keep those wonderful UW images coming ....you seem to have the exclusive right to post them here .

Brilliant work for me....TFS Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Mike - Love this one. You've captured the bright colors of the triggerfish well and brought out more subtle detail than your other UW shots. Nice textures in the skin and good control of the whites. Interesting behavior that does add to the depth of the image. Great choice on the dof too. Well done!

TFS,
Rachel

[Jonathan Ashton]

That's a belter Mike, really impressive IQ, I like the composition and the overall exposure. The detail you get in the fish is really quite something - well done!

[haseeb badar]

HI Mike -- What a fantastic image ! loved the sand burst and the colours looks awesome . A nice suggestion by Andreas regarding the backward use of clarity on the BG . But i really loved this frame .

TFS !

[greg cowle]

Fabulous image Mike. The action captured is really impressive.
Greg