Nudies (10 images)

[stuny]

Nudibranchs (or “nudies” as divers usually refer to them) are shell-less sea snails. Similar to nudies are flatworms, but nudies always have antenna and gills, things not visible on flatworms. Over 4,000 species have been identified, and more are found every day. They range in size from a half a centimeter to about 20 centimeters, but most of the ones we saw were in the 2 to 5 centimeter range. Their bright colors are a warning to fish that they contain poison. During our Borneo trip (we’re back just one week) I photographed about 50 species. Here’s a first assortment, with more to come.

[Canfred]

Hi Stuart, those are the finest underwater shots I have ever seen ,thank you for sharing and please please keep them coming.
Manfred

[Perspectics]

Very, very impressive. Something between fairy-tale characters and mere fiction. They made my day - hm - colorful! Thank you, what a treat!

[azzo]

Stuart,

Excellent series beautifully presented. Well done.

[s.m.e.p.]

Really great colors, sharpness and interesting animals.


Stefan

[photophile]

well done.. see this month's issue of NG. best. coos

[Artichoke]

reminding us all of the glories of Nature
your technique is superb and the subjects fascinating
each was a treat to see & I look forward to seeing more from this trip
I am curious to learn about your photographic set up for this

[spylaw4]

Beautiful shots of fascinating and colourful creatures. Superbly done!

[psquared]

Stuart,

Fantastic shots. The colors are gorgeous. You must have been literally a few inches from them to get the background to separate from the subject at 4.6mm focal length. Thanks for these wonderful photos.

Peter

[fotografr]

Wonderful series, Stuart. The colors are spectacular and I am seeing undersea creatures I've never seen before. You must be having a ball.

[jmr]

Stuart,

fascinating images - well done.

[stuny]

Manfred, Claus, Ivan, Stefan, Brian & Peter - Thank you.

CH - Thank you, and thank you for suggesting the latest national Geographic. Nice article and super photos, which I found online.

Arthur - Thank you. The set-up was the Panasonic version of the C-Lux in a Panasonic enclosure good to 40 meters, mounted on a base with an extension and arm for a flash. The flash was on Inon 2000, firing slaved off the camera's built in flash via an optical cable.

Brent - Thank you, and it was a ball. Even the logistics (quite a major task for this journey) were flawless, and the lowest point of the trip was the sushi restaurant in Kuala Lumpur not being as good as the one we frequent at home.

[michali]

Stuart- These are absolutely amazing photographs! I really can't say much more than what's already been said above.

We're planning a trip to Borneo next year, what was the water temperature like?
MIKE

[echorec]

Amazingly beautiful!

[stuny]

Mike - Thank you. It was typically about 26-29 degrees. We highly recommend the Sipadan Mabul Water Bungalo Dive Resort, on Mabul Island. We did 41 dives, and saw multiple turtles on nearly every one. Every day they'd take you to Sipadan for two of your three scheduled boat dives, but we tired of it and asked to just dive Mabul and Kapalai for the small stuff. You can also dive the house reef anytime, and it is an astonishingly fine dive site.

Gunnar - Thank you.

[robert_parker]

Stuart

An unusual and intersting series

[stuny]

Robert -

Thank you.

[wls.shanghai]

excellent unterwater shots,
wonderful- great colors

wls

[Dirk Van der Herten]

What a wonderful collection of nudibranchs you met, Stuart.
Two PM's each!

[stuny]

Werner - Thank you.

Dirk - Thank you. And thanks for the PMs -- that comes out to about 500 grams.