Common Brittlestar

Very close view of central disc. There are countless millions of these starfish around the UK, sometimes in colossal aggregations. They are a "nuisance" specie to divers and fisherman as they blanket whole areas. However, they have an inticate beauty in their own right. This one is part of a group smothering white soft corals (the white BG) which has retracted its polyps.
A small crop off the left. Converted from RAW in ACR, minor curves for contrast and USM. Canon 5D, 100mm macro, two flashes, ISO 200, F29 @ 1/125
North Sea July 2006

Hi Jim,

What an interesting looking creature. How big in diameter would these get? I'm guessing probably 4-5 inches?? Not knowing anything about underwater creatures I don't feel I can offer any critique re colour etc.

Thanks for sharing

Regards

Rob

Thanks Rob
Not a bad guess for size, maybe some get a bit bigger but the legs are very thin .... and brittle, hence the name. They just break into a thousand bits if you disturb them. The disc is perhaps an inch across and colour is very variable.
Jim

Superb. The white area upper left unbalances the composition for me a little bit. Does this look even better upside down or even rotated clockwise by 90 degrees?

Dave
Forest of Dean

Fascinating specimen, all I see are dried up dead ones which have lost their colour so it is great to see this in living technicolor... Thanks for sharing..