Mating Market Squid

Gallery: WildlifePosted February 25, 201315,046 views5 comments

Just got back from a fun 3 day dive trip to Catalina Island in Southern California. One of the highlights was finding a large aggregation of mating Market Squid (Doryteuthis opalescens). Normally mating activity occurs at night but in this case it was during the day for some reason. Quite possibly there would have been even more if we had done a night dive in the same spot. The mass in the center bottom of the picture is a collection of egg capsules which the squid are adding to. You can see the male squid grasping onto the females as the females lay the eggs.

I'm not super happy with the lighting on this shot though I'm not sure what I would have done differently either. Maybe I could have used diffusers on the strobes. The egg mass is practically touching my dome port so getting even lighting without the housing or the port itself shading part of the subject is tricky.

Nikon 200 in a Subal Housing. 2x Sea and Sea YS 350 strobes at 1/4 power.
Tokina 10-17 Fisheye Zoom at 17, ISO 200 f/8 1/160th.
Some adjustment of contrast, slight crop and light backscatter removal.

Clinton

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on February 25, 2013 at 8:33 PM

Hi Clinton. Perhaps the lighting doesn't agree with the scene you experienced, but I like the exposure here. The three distinct zones, foreground, midground and background each is unique in color and tone and adds greatly to the depth of the image. Nice clarity. You might have positioned the foreground egg mass slightly to the right corner to create a slightly more asymmetrical composition while also showing more of the sides of the squid. The large dark seaweed in the background is rather ominous. Neat underwater habitat/ecology photo!

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on February 25, 2013 at 9:47 PM

Hi Clinton,

The change in brightness from front to back helps define the egg mass and the sparkle of the squids' eyes and red brown tentacles adds some interesting detail to the event. You handled the challenging conditions quite well.................................Jim

Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments

Comment posted by Don Westbrook on February 26, 2013 at 12:41 PM

Nice job. Thanks for sharing this unique image.

Registered on January 4, 2013, 11 Posts, 332 Comments

Comment posted by Elizabeth Arellano on February 27, 2013 at 10:46 AM

I like the different levels, the colors are vibrant. Wonderful capture!

Registered on February 18, 2008, 35 Posts, 302 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on February 28, 2013 at 12:24 AM

What a cool, interesting and different scene Clinton! I am amazed at how large the eggs are. Thanks for sharing; it is always refreshing to see your underwater work here.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments