Plankton

Simple subject - simple picture which I post as I suspect not many readers will have seen such a beast although it is extremely common. This is a type of comb jelly called Beroe cucumis that arrives around the UK in the Spring in countless billions as part of the annual plankton bloom. Although simple, it is an active predator, feeding on other comb jellies which it engulfs by opening its right hand end (on the picture). All comb jellies constantly swim which they do by beating little plates on the ridges (comb rows) that run along the body and they make a fine sight with all the colours of the spectrum rippling along the ridges.

The traditional way to display a photo of them is to clone out all the rest of the plankton aroud the subject and produce a pure black BG. Whilst it may look good, it is unnatural as they are never, ever seen like that. Has anybody any views on that please?

Looks like a piece of floating electrickery, I like the delicate patterns inside the beast.
My opinions on BG are open really, clear BG's show the subject without distractions, but I also like environmental shots which can be more atmospheric and informative. So basically I'm no help.
Nice one.



Tim

Looks like some alien craft with a stellar background - superb - in my opinion, one of the most original photographs I have seen on here for a long time. Any chance of providing some technical details as to how it has been achieved?

Barrie

i like this a lot jim,

i've often observed similar things on the safety stops and wondered how i could do them justive in an image, someone should do a documentary on these things, they really are otherworldly to the extreme.

how big are these jim? the ones we get in ecuador are about 1 cm ranging around that size up or down, and difficult to focus on.

re background, i think the fulll blackout does allow you to fully concentrate on wondering how those lights look when they are whizzing around its structure, i find my eyes wandering a bit on this looking at the specks in the bg but i see your point.

any basking sharks following them around? we used to get them around the isle of wight regularly about 15 years ago, but i read they follow plankton blooms which can vary greatly on when and where....would be greatful for an invitation to dive with them if you find any this year....

best regards,

mark

Hello

I like the image and the info you supplied.

I also like this with the black background.

Cheers

Hi Jim

An unusual and very eye catching image. The dust/lights in the background look like stars so the effect is of some stange alien blob thingy drifting in space. I'd be tempted to clone out the dots for 'artistic' reasons for realism reasons leave them in.

Great image either way

cheers

Sean

Barry asked re techs. Nothing special with these other than they ned two to three stops more than solid subjects as a lot of light just goes through them. Canon 5D, Sigma 50, iso 100, 100th @ f11 in Manual, two flashes - one at half power and the other at a quarter both on manual. Size would be about 5cms I guess but they do grow to about 12 cms.
Thanks for the help re the other plankton around it.

I'm with A.R.D on this. Very nice to view and very interesting

Great image. Reminds me of a robot vacuum cleaner sucking up the debris. I like the inclusion of the other plankton as it gives a sense of the surrounding environment. Excellent.

Jim,

Excellent... the science photographer in me is crying out for the cleaner bg, however I know how difficult that is to achieve even in the controlled surroundings we have here....



Phil