Cautious Crab

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Bar-Eye Hermit Crab (Dardanus fucosus) – Blue Heron Bridge, Riviera Beach, Fl

Photographing Hermit Crabs can be a daunting little exercise.  They can disappear into their shells if disturbed, they only rise up off of the seabed about 4 inches, and are often in areas that are inaccessible to a camera and strobes.  While shooting this Bar-Eye, I had to angle my lights as low as possible and basically ‘sit’ my camera on the sea floor in the path of the approaching creature.  There wasn’t room for me to lay my head down to line up the shot exactly, so this image was more-or-less a ‘shot from the hip’.  Once I lifted my gear to review the picture, I was excited to see successful results.

Canon G15, Nauticam NAG15, Inon s2000 (x2), Sola Photo 800, SubSee +10

1/1600 sec, f/8, ISO160