I'm serious. Dude is living the life.
More than that, I'm so impressed with this organism, its beauty, its fluidity, its speed, its defense mechanisms, and did I mention its beauty?
I've shot 10,000 or 15,000 Nudibranch pics the last few years. I kinda got a nose for Nudis. However, I've had the opportunity to shoot these types of Flatworms twice before – and both times I only took maybe 2 or 3 shots. So I feel very fortunate to see not only one but TWO this weekend on the same dive.
Here's the story:
Dive 4 at Anacapa. Very shallow - we're in about 19 to 23 feet, against the south side of the Island. Lots of surge. I spot a Fed Ex. I point to it, and Claudette squeals (her signal that she sees something cool...) I look closer, and at the base of the Fed Ex, on the brown carpet of fuzz is a Flatworm. He's small - maybe 1/2" inch (who knew he'd be considered "the big one...")
We're getting blown around in the surge, and the kelp leaves are slapping my lens (see right side of the frame, pic #1 below.) I get off one shot and he buries himself into the fuzz. We try to extract with the DIR-knife-of-life - no go. He's gone. So I swim off to find something a little larger and slower I can shoot in this surge.
A moment later, 'dette's HID crosses my field of vision. I come back over and she's found another flattie. This one smaller than the impossibly small one that had just submerged into the fuzz. She has it on the blade of her knife, and its all curled up like a Taquito. It rolls off. He immediately digs into the fuzz. She retrieves it, and it goes all Croissant again.
ENOUGH. :splat:
I look around for something hard like a rock or a shell - something taffy here can't dig into. I come up with a fist-and-a-half sized 20 year old Wavy Turban shell. All craggy and bumpy, and unfortunately, very white and reflective (not the best background for something this small.)
So 'Chica puts the ribbon curl onto the shell (sort of lets it roll off the blade of her knife, really!) A moment later he opens up, and he makes a break for it. I'm familiar with Nudi speed. Nothing could have prepared me for Flatworm speed!
I'm thinking, "pace yourself, Turbo - we're gonna be here awhile..."
Claudette starts to spin the shell. Not out of artistic nuance, but just to keep speedy from flying off the edge like Aladdin's carpet.
You have to imagine the scene:
Two experienced divers with a couple of thousand dives between them. Both with promising, fulfilling careers and satisfying, busy lives out of the water. Our two heroes are hunched over in 19 feet of water, getting blasted about by the surge. One of these mental patients is desperately trying to hold a heavy and preposterously out-sized camera steady, while the other is actively spinning an old white shell to keep a tiny worm in frame while said worm is sliming along the bumpy surface of this old shell at the speed of sound. It was like a game of underwater hot potato on a trampoline.
OY!
I think I took about 30 shots or so - It may have been a couple less - but not many. I filled the remains of my card on this guy, and that's not easy for me. Here are a few shots of this magnificent animal.
Thanks, 'dette for another great memory. Too funny.
---
Ken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is the "big one" - the first one that escaped into the fuzz while I was getting whapped by kelp leaves in the surge.
The star of our adventuere: Tiny the Flat worm. Clinging and sliming along the side of the Wavy Turban shell
Comin' into your living room... the Flatworm Treadmill from Ronco...
(Looks left, looks right) "Are those two wack jobs still here? I just wanna go back to the fuzz..."
Down the roller coaster! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
SCREEEECH! "OK - so over the edge is bad. Ahem. Claudette, you gonna spin this thing or am I gonna take the plunge?"
Up and over the edge of the shell
And 'round the corner, hugging the curves - here comes Flatty Speed Racer
.
.
Full Gallery of the trip can be found here on The Dive Matrix - Scuba Diving Forums, Articles & Travel Directory
.
.
.
.
More than that, I'm so impressed with this organism, its beauty, its fluidity, its speed, its defense mechanisms, and did I mention its beauty?
I've shot 10,000 or 15,000 Nudibranch pics the last few years. I kinda got a nose for Nudis. However, I've had the opportunity to shoot these types of Flatworms twice before – and both times I only took maybe 2 or 3 shots. So I feel very fortunate to see not only one but TWO this weekend on the same dive.
Here's the story:
Dive 4 at Anacapa. Very shallow - we're in about 19 to 23 feet, against the south side of the Island. Lots of surge. I spot a Fed Ex. I point to it, and Claudette squeals (her signal that she sees something cool...) I look closer, and at the base of the Fed Ex, on the brown carpet of fuzz is a Flatworm. He's small - maybe 1/2" inch (who knew he'd be considered "the big one...")
We're getting blown around in the surge, and the kelp leaves are slapping my lens (see right side of the frame, pic #1 below.) I get off one shot and he buries himself into the fuzz. We try to extract with the DIR-knife-of-life - no go. He's gone. So I swim off to find something a little larger and slower I can shoot in this surge.
A moment later, 'dette's HID crosses my field of vision. I come back over and she's found another flattie. This one smaller than the impossibly small one that had just submerged into the fuzz. She has it on the blade of her knife, and its all curled up like a Taquito. It rolls off. He immediately digs into the fuzz. She retrieves it, and it goes all Croissant again.
ENOUGH. :splat:
I look around for something hard like a rock or a shell - something taffy here can't dig into. I come up with a fist-and-a-half sized 20 year old Wavy Turban shell. All craggy and bumpy, and unfortunately, very white and reflective (not the best background for something this small.)
So 'Chica puts the ribbon curl onto the shell (sort of lets it roll off the blade of her knife, really!) A moment later he opens up, and he makes a break for it. I'm familiar with Nudi speed. Nothing could have prepared me for Flatworm speed!
I'm thinking, "pace yourself, Turbo - we're gonna be here awhile..."Claudette starts to spin the shell. Not out of artistic nuance, but just to keep speedy from flying off the edge like Aladdin's carpet.
You have to imagine the scene:
Two experienced divers with a couple of thousand dives between them. Both with promising, fulfilling careers and satisfying, busy lives out of the water. Our two heroes are hunched over in 19 feet of water, getting blasted about by the surge. One of these mental patients is desperately trying to hold a heavy and preposterously out-sized camera steady, while the other is actively spinning an old white shell to keep a tiny worm in frame while said worm is sliming along the bumpy surface of this old shell at the speed of sound. It was like a game of underwater hot potato on a trampoline.
OY!
I think I took about 30 shots or so - It may have been a couple less - but not many. I filled the remains of my card on this guy, and that's not easy for me. Here are a few shots of this magnificent animal.
Thanks, 'dette for another great memory. Too funny.
---
Ken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is the "big one" - the first one that escaped into the fuzz while I was getting whapped by kelp leaves in the surge.
The star of our adventuere: Tiny the Flat worm. Clinging and sliming along the side of the Wavy Turban shell
Comin' into your living room... the Flatworm Treadmill from Ronco...
(Looks left, looks right) "Are those two wack jobs still here? I just wanna go back to the fuzz..."
Down the roller coaster! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
SCREEEECH! "OK - so over the edge is bad. Ahem. Claudette, you gonna spin this thing or am I gonna take the plunge?"
Up and over the edge of the shell
And 'round the corner, hugging the curves - here comes Flatty Speed Racer
.
.
Full Gallery of the trip can be found here on The Dive Matrix - Scuba Diving Forums, Articles & Travel Directory
.
.
.
.
