Close-Up of A Clownfish In Okinawa Japan

Subject

Clownfish

 

Location

Okinawa, Japan

 

Equipment

Canon Camera, dual inon strobes, +7 wet lens

 

Dive

10 meters (30 feet at depth) during a day dive

 

 

When I was starting to get comfortable with diving, I was fortunate to be living on a tropical island, surrounded by volcanic rock.  This rock helped cultivate hundreds of miles of coral reefs.  Not a bad to place, to get acquainted with the underwater locals.  The inlet area across from street from where I lived had dramatic high and low tides.  When it was low tide, I would have to walk 50 yards before I got my feet wet.  I would start to swim in a crevice that would descend from five feet and then drop off to 30 feet.  I called this crevice, pufferfish lane.

 

Pufferfish would sit in this area all the time sleeping on the bottom but only during low tide.  As I swam passed pufferfish lane, a coral reef would be to my right.  When I built up my courage to swim a little further out, I noticed there was other rock formations out there, beyond the huge coral.   I swam out there one day, beyond where I normally go and to my surprise around the corner, there was an anemone with an orange clownfish.

 

When I first saw the anemone with the clownfish, I was shocked it was there.  It was hidden and doubt that this clownfish had ever seen a diver before.   The anemone was tucked away from the current and elements so after every typhoon I would check on this area.  It was always in good shape.  I was able to get so close to the clownfish that she almost kissed the front end of the camera.   When I would go diving off that spot, I always swam by to check out how she was doing.  She was always very photogenic.