Photo of the Week: April 20, 2009

Hi gang! I think the best way for me to get started with this week's POTW commentary is to cut to the chase and say, "show me a cleaning station and the odds are I am going to stop and see what I can photograph. You can keep on swimming if you want to, but I'll be right here for a while." And given the chance, I'll probably come back and check things out at the same cleaning station on subsequent dives and on subsequent days whenever it is possible.

Repeated dives to the same cleaning station is exactly what enabled me to create this photograph of a scarlet cleaner shrimp (aka scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp and northern cleaner shrimp, Lysmata amboinensis) providing its cleaning services inside of the mouth of a tomato grouper (Cephalopholis sonnerati). Of course, getting a good behavioral shot requires first of all that you recognize the behavior that is taking place. No doubt, when it comes to capturing behavior, knowledge is power, and being aware of the habits of various species can be the vital ingredient that allows you to get the shots you want. In this case, I was diving off the island of Mabul in Malaysia where I saw a grouper hovering mouth wide open in the water column over an artificial reef, a display that is a sure sign that cleaning is underway or being requested.

The first thing I do when I see a behavior in a reef community that I want to observe or try to photograph is stop and watch from a distance. While watching I try to determine how close I think I can get to the animals involved without disrupting the behavior. Next, I map out an approach and check for any obstacles such as a sea urchin or a reef outcropping that I might impede my approach. If I am satisfied that I will have a fighting chance to get as close as I think I need to in order to get a good shot I set my f/stop and strobe power, position my strobes and pre-focus my camera before I begin my approach. I also attain neutral buoyancy so that I won't have to struggle to get into position and risk disrupting the behavior. When I was a less experienced photographer, I think I often failed to appreciate how important it can be to attain neutral buoyancy. As I make my approach I avoid all unnecessary movement, and minimize the movement I must make.

In this case, here is what I did to get the shot: When I first saw the cleaning station, I stopped and watched from a distance of several yards away making certain that the cleaning was underway before I approached. While waiting I set up my camera system. I determined that I needed to get to within about two feet of the grouper to get the shot so I pre-focused my lens on an object that was roughly two feet away. I set my aperture as I normally would for a shooting distance of two feet, but made a point of using slightly less strobe light than normal, meaning I lowered the power, because I was concerned about the possibility of grossly overexposing the white tissues in the grouper's mouth.

Once I felt confident that the grouper was settled down and the shrimp was actively cleaning, I began a very slow, deliberate approach being extremely careful to maintain neutral buoyancy so I would not accidentally crash into and stir up the soft sand bottom, startle the grouper, and disrupt the behavior. To minimize noise, rather than exhaling by pushing air through the exhaust tee of my regulator in sudden bursts as I normally do, I exhaled by parting my lips and letting the air slowly escape around my mouthpiece.

When I got to the desired shooting distance, I waited as motionless as possible for the money shot moment. But I didn't get the shot I wanted. The shrimp did clean the grouper, but the cleaner worked on the side of the fish's face that faced away from me.

So I took my bearings at dive's end and decided to return to the exact same spot the following morning, a time when many cleaning stations are busy. Lucky me, a grouper was there and the shrimp were cleaning away. I don't know if it was the same fish and same shrimp, but it was the exact same cleaning station. In any case, using the same technique and approach that I used the previous afternoon, and I got my chance when the groper opened wide and the shrimp jumped right in to go to work. My best image from that morning shoot is a highlight of my recent trip to Malaysia as well as this week's POTW.