My little town

Nearly six hours spent underwater today to try and beat the bad weather jinx and get some shots . The current has died slightly but the water is pretty turbid just now making things a little tricky in the photographic department but what would life be without some challenges?

Wide angle was a b*tch to light today and no matter how wide I went, the particulate always caused a bounce here and there. Damn you mother nature!! But the angelfish, triggerfish and snappers were out on patrol with a good selection of sergeant majors to boot.

Still, not to be thwarted we waited till the sun got low in the sky and went out to see what we could see in the night time.

Scuba cat continues to provide surface support from the best (warmest) vantage point.

We spent a little time in the hard pan checking the usual places before dropping off the wall to see what was lurking in the sand patches. And lo and behold there was a lovely little pipehorse fish.

There was a fair few adult octupus roaming over the wall tonight as well as the usual culprits of peacock flounders and yellow spotted rays. There was also a healthy sprinkling of juvenile sharpnose puffers asleep in the sponges just ripe for a photo or two.

Not to mention the plethora of gobies and wrasse hangin in and around the coral heads, the tricky little devils. they were no match for my macro lens and snake like reflexes however! (note: snake like reflexes are an optional extra).

I see you. There is no escape!

There were also a fantastic array of hemit crabs out fighting each other tonight. It must have been closing time the pub or something but there was one hermit that caught my eye because of the unusual pattern shell.

Looking closely I noticed a small movement about an inch up from it and found a fantastic juvenile gold line sea goddess! A stroke of luck or what?

I love my nudis

And then just to an additional layer of icing on the cake, there was a nice little fringe back nudi on a rope sponge a few feet away. Shame there was a blood worm that had to photo bomb the shot, the little bugger.

I hate blood worms

Anyway, back to the hermit crabs fighting. In this case, this one was having an argument all to itself.......

"Are you looking at me? are YOU looking at ME???"

I must mention that the squids from last week were still around although in much smaller numbers and they didn't want to stay put for a picture tonight, but there was a plethora shrimp around and this one had a juvenile in tow. If you look carefully above the topp antennae, you can just make it out, it's titchy.

Mother (or father?) with squalling brat in tow.....

 

And with the surge bouncing us off the hardpan in the shallows that was out cue to foxtrot alpha and get out the water before we incurred the wrath of scuba cat, but not before grabbing a final shot of this little fellow.