As long as I'm on the topic of nudibranchs, here are a couple of photos of a Spanish dancer (Hexabranchus sanguineus) I came across during one of the night dives in Ambon:
A Spanish dancer nudibranch, Totomega-style
These supersized sea slugs (this one was 30+cm) are beautiful animals, but I've never taken a photograph that I like of a Spanish dancer. I'm not sure why, but I think one reason is that it's difficult to portray them in a unique way.
If you Google "Spanish dancer nudibranch" and look at the Images section, you'll see what I mean.
Most photos make this nudibranch look either like a floppy red doormat or some sort of vaguely internal-organ-like twisty thing suspended against a background of black or blue.
With the Totomega lens, I finally had a chance to do something different.
It took me a while to figure out how to depict the scarlet sea slug in an unusual manner…the challenge exacerbated by the oversized nudibranch's restlessness…but investing a bit of time to work out the angles and lighting resulted in a couple of keepers that I'm really happy with.
Spanish dancer doing a Viking impression