SETTING SLUGLOVE TO ON

I went tidepooling for the first time in a long time last weekend, with Jessie, Archie, and one of my contacts from Flickr, John. Always exciting to meet digital people in the flesh, especially slugaholic tidepoolers. The tide was moderate, but being in the afternoon on an weekend at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve meant there was a ton of people out there. This was wonderful for all the people clearly enthralled by nature (on looking at a nudibranch, one woman exclaimed, “I never even knew these things existed!”), fascinating for the other photographers out there with sophisticated rigs and infinite patience, and somewhat unnerving for someone like me who tends to have more in common with solitary grazers like the slugs I so adore. New species for me included the unbelievably fabulous Olive’s Aeolid (Aeolidiella oliviae), Cadlina luteomarginata, and Cadlina modesta. Old friends included Hermissenda crassicornis, Rostanga pulchra, and Diaulula sandiegensis. Jessie even flexed her unfathomable patience and eyesight to pull out a Cuthona abronia.

I was shooting with my new Digital Rebel and my 60 mm macro lens, but I mistakenly had the ISO set way high the whole time, so very few of my pictures came out. I was frustrated as hell when I got home and saw them, and have now vowed to make sure I take an automatic shot with the flash for every subject I have, just to make sure I have some decent artifact at the end of the day. Anyway, some pics that were semi-ok:

Olive’s Aeolid (Aeolidiella oliviae)

Cuthona abronia

Modest Cadlina (Cadlina modesta)

Lined Chiton (Tonicella lineata, a kind of chiton, not a nudibranch)

You can see more cool pics of the same guys and more at John’s Flickr page and Ron Wolf’s Flickr page.