Photo #17 – Longfin grouper

Longfin grouper

Longfin grouper (Epinephelus quoyanus), photographed in the waters off Pelorus Island, Queensland.

I love these fellows. Their habit of finding a bit of sand or a bit of rock and sitting around on it, instead of darting all over the place like most fish, makes them terribly easy to photograph.

Photo #16 – Phyllidia ocellata

Phyllidia ocellata, a species of nudibranch

Phyllidia ocellata, photographed in the waters off Pelorus Island, Queensland.

Nudibranchs (including Phyllidia ocellata) form a “clade” (meaning that all species of nudibranch descend from a common ancestor that no non-nudibranch descends from) of predatory sea slugs. Nudibranchs tend to be vibrantly coloured, and there is a great deal of variation between species in not only the colour patterns but even in the anatomy – which makes them great photography subjects!

Photo #13 – Great Eggfly

Great Eggfly
Hypolimnas bolina, photographed in Townsville, Queensland. This species is sexually dimorphic (that is, the different genders look very different to each other) – this is a male.

At this point, I think we can all agree that I’m rather bad at blogging. I recently moved to Townsville, and have more or less settled in by now – so hopefully I can get something a bit more regular going here!