Beauty in the Beast
Ok, we are all about corals, but after years of learning the basic of Underwater Macro Photography, in order to shoot our beloved corals, I noticed that many of the best UW macro-photography subjects are actually bonded to corals. And as I usually dive unguided in Bali, so I quickly learned to look for the right animal associated with the right coral to find the perfect subject.
Then when a particular coral is spotted, it just takes a quick look, to actually spot the shrimp, crab, fish, seahorse, pipefish, which are the highly sought after macro subjects. That’s why we will start a new series called‘Learn Your Corals, To Spot Your Model’.
We will start this series with an easy and ugly one,Amplexidiscus fenestrafera.k.a the Disc Anemone or the Elephant Ear Anemone. Actually, this coral is technically not a real anemone but a corallimorpharia or mushroom anemone, which are colonial anemones, composed a narrow foot/column topped with a wide coral disc equipped with numerous tentacles and a mouth in its center.
这种棕色/黄色的珊瑚可以达到直径的脚，这就是为什么它们也被称为板海葵的原因。像其他任何海葵一样，它几乎能够以任何会落在其上的东西为食，即使是一条无法真正逃脱的小鱼。但是，将主要消耗浮游生物和海洋雪的小颗粒，纤毛细胞会带到口腔吸收。当它捕获大型猎物或大量小食物时，它会像球一样充气和闭合。
Now that we know what the host looks like, let’s check out the symbiont that is the most interesting for the UW Photographer. This commensal Disk Anemone Shrimp,Pliopontonia furtiva是一只非常可爱的小虾，主要是透明的身体，黄色的标记和粉红色的眼睛。
If you take a closer look you can see the shrimp likes to pull the anemone tissue around its body like a blanket, and protects itself inside the fold. It usually sits on the outside perimeter of the coral or near the mouth. Just need to locate a suspicious folded part of the coral and look inside. And usually, the little beauty shrimp is right there!
This shrimp is quite small, usually barely over a centimeter long, so your +10 Diopter will be of great help in order to get a nice close-up shot.
