Today’s image was also made at Uepi in September 2009, and features a nudibranch (Phyllidia varicosa) that is quite common in tropical Pacific waters.

It was captured at a dive site called BOTCH (Bottom Of The CHannel), which lies in the channel between Uepi Island and the adjacent island.

BOTCH is a more advanced dive, with depths of 40m+ being encountered, along with the possibility of reasonable currents. It is these currents which bring nutrients, creating a diversity of large and small marine life

This nudibranch (P. varicosa) was quite photogenic, being colourful and lying on a colourful background. I must admit I didn’t notice the parasites on it until I downloaded the images to my laptop after the dive.

The nudi is quite large, and with my single strobe positioned over the top, there was some shadow detail under the mantle. Some basic HDR tone mapping has brought the shadow detail out quite nicely (IMHO), and also given the colours a natural pop.