Mr Smiles - Spotted Scorpionfish Profile

Spotted Scorpionfish

Biscayne National Park, Florida

60mm lens, F16 @ 1/90

Fuji S2Pro

dual strobes, 1/2 power, 1/2 power

Cute little guy from last weekend.

Enjoy

M

Impressive macro! Very sharp

The problem with that shot is that it’s too impressive, It’s too close, I cannot impress from the fish, only from is closed mouth and one eye.

Nice. I would have to agree that it might be better just as a little bit wider a shot.

I'm afraid i am going to have to disagree. I think the shot works very well as a close up. There are umpteen good wider angled shots of Scorpion fish but very few good closeups.

Paul, I too like the image as it is. The only minor thing I may consider is to come out slightly to include a little more lip. Only a slight bit.

Overall I like that it is a different/unique perspective of a common subject.

Paul, I too like the image as it is. The only minor thing I may consider is to come out slightly to include a little more lip. Only a slight bit.

 

Overall I like that it is a different/unique perspective of a common subject.

Interesting thoughts...

I have literally thousands of Spotted Scorpionfish images. They are docile as anything, and will sit there and look grumpy as you strobe them for awhile. If you are nice and go in slowly you can actually stroke them under their chin - they seem to like that.

I have the other images the first couple of people mentioned. Quite frankly they are technically very good images, but I have seen them all before. I have been waiting to get an appropriate one sitting someplace I could shoot this angle on him (needed to be able to shoot upwards without rocks and gorgonians in the way). Wanted just the lips and one eye. So I am pleased I got the shot I wanted (people can like it/dislike it as they want).

Here is another angle of the same fish - maybe more to some peoples taste:

(I love the little featherduster worm under his chin)

And if you really like, you can see me experimenting on angles and body parts at this link. Things like eye detail, lip details, fin details, etc - Spotted Scorpionfish Gallery

Enjoy,

M

FWIW - I think this is a great shot!!! Its appeal may be limited to divers, or perhaps to serious UW photographers because we realize how unique the image is. Very frequently, when I've captured a unique angle that I've worked hard at, I get the response "why didn't you get the whole fish." For non-divers, or infrequent divers, sometimes these perspectives can be confusing. For those of us that know this subject well, a perspective like this one is refreshing.

One of the cool things about shooting video - which I haven't done in a long time - is that you can show the non-diver the entire fish, and the closeup in the same sequence. We don't have that luxury with still photography.