ALLIGATOR GAR – IUCN Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERN Alligator gars are “living fossils” What am I looking at? This strange shaped fish is named after what it looks like, an alligator. It is in fact a fish. However, this fish can breathe both air and water! In addition, this type of fish is actually able […]
Cotton Stainer – IUCN Conservation Status: INSUFFICIENT DATA Cotton stainers are about one centimeter long as adults This bug is called a “cotton stainer”, but my friend Tyler and I called these “red driveway bugs”. These wild colored bugs could be found daily in our yard and across our driveway. At the time, I lived […]
Scrawled Cowfish – IUCN Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERN Notice the horns on the scrawled cowfish Scrawled Cowfish What catches your eye when you see this photo of a scrawled cowfish? For me it was two-fold: one, the mesmerizing blue and yellow pattern that covered the cowfish’s body, and two, the little horns that protrude from […]
IUCN Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERN Striated frogfish can change colors! This is a black-phase striated frogfish. Let’s breakdown what we are looking at. This is a fish that lives in salt water. It is not a frog. It is pea-sized. That is my fingertip in the bottom left corner, for scale. These fish can take […]
IUCN Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERN Shortnose batfish have bright pink lips! Sometimes with macro photography, you can get so zoomed in that it’s hard to tell what you are even looking at. That is part of the fun of macro photography. Images can look even sharper than what your eye can see. DONATE This is […]
IUCN Conservation Status: DATA DEFICIENT This harlequin blue sea goddess is only about an inch long This ornate creature is a type of nudibranch called a Harlequin Blue Sea Goddess. The photo was taken at Blue Heron Bridge near West Palm Beach, Florida. This small marine sea slug is only about an inch long! These […]
IUCN Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERN Sharptail eels orange eyes match their orange spots This is the head of a sharptail eel, which is a type of snake eel. Although these creatures resemble a snake, don’t confuse this with a “sea snake”. So, what’s the difference? Sea snakes are reptiles that need to surface to breathe […]
IUCN Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERN This bluestriped grunt was in the waters off of Siesta Key in Florida I took this photo of a bluestriped grunt during some of the hours of snorkeling that I did in Siesta Key, Florida this past year. This year the water had been more clear than I had ever […]
IUCN Conservation Status: VULNERABLE With a front like a ray and a back like a shark, it’s easy to see where the guitarfish gets its name This interesting creature is called a guitarfish. The body shape of this fish resembles a guitar. The front half looks like a ray, while the back half looks like […]
Goliath groupers are my favorite to shoot in black and white With the incredible photography equipment available these days, it’s becoming less common to see black and white underwater photography. I’m a big fan of black and white photography, on land and underwater. Large subjects, like goliath groupers, are my favorite to shoot in black […]