Swedish Coral

Caryophyllia smithii

Pennatula phosphorea

I very much enjoy tyrying to photograph these, but it's quite hard - particularily Pennatula phosphorea. There's always lots of suspended particles in the water, and they live fairly deep (starting at 30m). Any advice on what I can do to get better pictures of these?

More pictures here.

Some points to start with:

- Use nitrox: more time

- Move slowly and gentle so you doesn't kick up the bottom.

- Stay down current of the seapen, there are usally some current there.

- If it is to much uspended particles in the water, move a bit over to the next one.

- Get a wider lens, so you get closer - less water with particles.

- Mind you strobe placement, out to the side and use the edge of the beam.

Here is one of mine:

Good luck with the shooting

Great shot! so many so close together

I've been thinking about nitrox...

At this particular site there is almost never any current. The water just seems to sit there. Although I imagine there has to be some sort of in-flow of cooler saltier water. I'm very careful about stiring up the sand, and I always make sure I'm the first one down there.

My wide angle lens (with dome) and the second strobe is relatively new to me; so I hope to get better shots in the future.

Cool shots guys! We have sea pens on this side of the pole too.

One of the most commonly seen species in the northeast Pacific is Ptilosarcus gurneyi. See pic. This is a scan of a Nikonos RS 35mm slide taken earlier this year while on a trip to British Columbia where they grow to rather large size. This one, which was bent over in the current, was over a half meter long.

Tom

Here is one from Prince William Sound, Alaska. I just pulled this off a Kodak photo CD from 1997. I took this shot at a research project site just a few km away from where I am sitting. As you can see the bottom is very silty. The site is near the mouth of a glacial river. Visibility was less than 1 meter, frequently much less than 1 meter!

Ptilosarcus in PWS do not grow to the same size as in B.C.! <_<

The ones I have seen in PWS have been 15 to 20 cm long (the part buried in the sediment is not included in my lengths!)

Tom

I heard they can move. How do they do that?

I seem to recall (maybe from my undergraduate days) that the stalk is able use peristaltic action to dig itself into the sediment.

Tom

back to the original question. I think the first is known to the british as devonshire cup coral, but it seems to be absent from the Dutch coast.

I have seen see pens (one or two) in Scotland as well, very interesting animal. looks like time forgot about them. I suspect that if they move, they move like anemones, as Tom described above.

I was however hoping you were talking about deep water coral, I thought how could you ever take a picture of that without a deep sea rig..

Gerard

Yes, we also have reef building corals living very deep - never seen those ;-)

An anemone is one individual. A sea pen is a colony of individuals.

Do you dive a lot in Scotland? I'm going to St Kilda next summer.

http://www.kilda.org.uk/

Didn't know sea pens were colonies.

I don't live in Scotland, but have visited it a couple of times (studied there also for six months, i dived the west coast moslty then because i was in Aberdeen). I visited Scapa Flow (twice) and the west coast (Oban and Mull). St kilda must be great !!

I have yet to return and photograph !!

Kilda is very exposed and the life mostly 'high-energy'. Expect lots of anemones, sponges and encrusting life. And lots of kelp! There are Devenshire Cup Corals too. If you get the chance try a night dive in Village Bay - a sandy seabed but often you get fish like, plaice, gurnards and even anglers.

Dives like the saw-cut are incredibly colourful and there are cave's and tunnels to explore. Photography is tricky - there is almost always some swell and although vis can be good, the light levels are never as high as wanted. Keep you eyes peeled on the crossing over - we've seen Minkes, Sunfish and Basking Sharks. If you are lucky you may see birds whilst diving too.

I'm off to the Isle of Lewis, hoping to dive the rarely visited Flannan Islands next year (NE of Kilda) - we were defeated by weather this year. Kilda is a fascinating place but if you hit bad weather there is some spectacular diving off the Outer Hebrides too.

There are reef forming coralls (Lophelia) in sweden aswell, but they are very deep, around 100meters.

But there are Lophelia reefs in The Trondheim fjord in Norway that comes upp to as shallow as 42m (it is shallow for these type of coralls).

Is is said to be a very rewarding dive with alot of different animals in connection with the reef.

Ingvald>> have you been here?

But there are Lophelia reefs in The Trondheim fjord in Norway that comes upp to as shallow as 42m (it is shallow for these type of coralls).

Ingvald>> have you been here?

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No I haven't dived at them yet, Haven't dived in Trondheimsfjorden at all.