Clownfish Eggs in Amed, Bali (Lumix LX10)

[afieldofblue]

Hello all,

There’s been a lot of spawning/nesting action in the past few weeks over in east Bali's Amed / Tulamben area, and here are a few shots of saddleback clownfish (Amphiprion polymnus, now also commonly known as Nemos...) egg patches, and showing their evolution over time



A Field of Blue / @afieldofblue
Filmed on a Panasonic Lumix LX10 in a Nauticam housing, 4K, 30fps
Music base: "L'univers De La Mer" by Dominique Guiot

Equipment: Panasonic Lumix LX10 (LX15/LX9 in some locales) in a Nauticam housing, AOI UCL-09 closeup lens, Inon UCL-165M67 closeup lens, Backscatter Macromate Mini +15 closeup lens - Backscatter MW 4300 video light, two Archon D11V2 video lights, homemade quadripod


cheers!

ben

 

[RyanT]

That's amazing, thank you!

 

[ROUS]

It's remarkable footage. (And, a great little camera too!)

 

[rmorgan]

Very cool--thanks for posting it, and kudos for the dedication to task. (Did you get bitten? My partner has a scar on her lip from an anemonefish hit a few months ago)

 

[ROUS]

My partner has a scar on her lip from an anemonefish hit

They're fighters, that's for sure. Defending their turf.

 

[afieldofblue]

It's remarkable footage. (And, a great little camera too!)

Thanks! Yep, the LX10 is great - interestingly, with the 36mm crop in 4K video, it seems to do better in macro video than for photos.

 

[afieldofblue]

Very cool--thanks for posting it, and kudos for the dedication to task. (Did you get bitten? My partner has a scar on her lip from an anemonefish hit a few months ago)

Yep, they're really defending those eggs!
i've found a way to approach which seems to work better. I setup close to the anemone (roughly on the border where the clownfish start snapping and making gnaping sounds at any intruders), then staying as low as possible, I slowly bring the camera in closer (it's on a quadripod, so I don't need to hold it).

The camera itself doesn't seem to bother them as much as a moving animal, so once they're used to it I fine tune and start shooting.

The only bite I got was on the knuckle, adjusting the focus knob on the side of the camera (didn't like a moving hand getting closer to the egg patch I guess).
Once all is good I move out, and leave the camera, only repeating to change angles etc.

Taking it slow, it works quite well!
cheers
b

 

[ROUS]

I do NOT want to steal the thunder from ben's film above. It's remarkable. But, on a related note, I just released this little film on clownfish this week. It was shot just around the corner from him in the Philippines. I think I came home Puerto Galera with 4 or 5 hours of anemonefish footage. (Shot with the LX-10.) They're photogenic little fellas.