Prints · Lembeh Strait · Open edition

Black & Gold

Xeno crab whip coral · Size 5 cm

The story · in my own words

Find the crab.

The xeno crab lives on one thing only, the whip corals that grow off the reef into the current, usually in pairs, and it has stopped looking like a crab. Its shell is spiky, often overgrown with the coral's own polyps, and it takes its colour from the branch it holds. On a gold whip coral, it is gold.

Thirty-five metres down in the Lembeh Strait, April 2013, with a magnifier on the front of the macro lens and both strobes back and wide so the polyps light evenly along the branch. The crab is in the middle of the frame, where the coral bends. Once you have seen it you cannot unsee it. Most people need a moment.

A xeno crab on a whip coral, on coral, the Lembeh Strait.

$150Sizes below
01Choose a size
Open edition · printed to order

Choose a size

Buy this print · $150

Prices in US dollars; shipping is a flat $25 to Canada and the United States. Printed to order and shipped from Canada. Framing is not offered: shipping glass across a border is a bad idea for everyone.

02How it was made
How it was made · from the file

Eight lines from the dive

Exposure
ISO 100 · 1/200 · f14
Camera
5D MKIII + EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Housing
Nauticam 5D MKIII
Lighting
Dual Sea & Sea Alpha strobes
Accessories
Macromate
Technique
10-2 strobe position
Conditions
Mild current
Visibility
20 m
The technique and lighting lines link to the craft articles that explain them. A dash means the record does not hold it, and I would rather show the gap than fill it.
03Where
Where · North Sulawesi

Photographed in Lembeh Strait

When you would see it in Lembeh Strait
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F
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M
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Copper is high season, grey is shoulder, a stub is closed. The same calendar the destination publishes.
Read the Lembeh Strait guide
04More from Lembeh Strait
More from Lembeh Strait

Postage is by the tube, not the sheet

Postage is the largest single cost in a print order, and it is charged by the tube. A second print travels in the same one.

A harlequin shrimp beside a frogfish, the Lembeh StraitHarlequin shrimp frogfish$300A snake eel, the Lembeh StraitSnake eel cleaner shrimp$300An Ambon scorpionfish against black water, the Lembeh StraitAmbon scorpionfish black$300A thorny seahorse in profile, the Lembeh StraitThorny seahorse profile$150A wonderpus with its arms up, the Lembeh StraitWonderpus arms$150A juvenile cuttlefish in red, the Lembeh StraitJuvenile cuttlefish red$150