It was 1999 when I first returned to Sydney, Australia after my parents moved to England around 1980. I spent about 4 months diving the East coast of Australia from Sydney up to Cairns. It was during my dive master course with Prodive that I first encountered the blue bottle jellyfish, known in Europe as the Portuguese Man-o-war (Physalia physalis). It was a windy day with a swell coming into Gordon's Bsy. Trying to get students that resemble a baby giraffe standing for the first time to get into the water with their dive equipment on. Their balance and poise terrible, not listening to instruction and to add to the drama a heap of these blue jellyfish being swept in. I remember using my fins to push them away to try and create a corridor for the students to get in but got one around my tank neck that stung me.
Fast forward to 2006 and I (finally) moved back to Sydney and in addition to diving decided to try my luck at surfing. When the swells hit from the NE we got good wave action and some good rides, but low and behold we also got blue bottles.
Fast forward in time again to 2018 and I wanted to get an image of a blue bottle. Whilst highly annoying when you are in the water they have a beauty which is strange for such a simple organism. Matty Smith put them firmly in the public eye with his epic image of an above/below composition which needless to say won awards.
I needed to get my bluebottle on!
I started shooting more macro in the last 2 years and sold my soul to the nudibranch devil. I want different shots, new species and the chance to increase my collection. I was reading about a nudibranch that floated on the surface and ate the blue bottles. Now thats a cool nudi! They have a blue colour to them as well as they feed on the blue bottles storing stinging cells within its own tissues as defense against predation. Is it better to get stung by the jellyfish or the nudi that eats the jellyfish?
This weekend we had the strong E/NE swell and winds so I decided to get my gear, an old screw top supplements jar and a garden hand shovel and headed to Collaroy beach. It wasn't long before I found the blue bottles, but only came across the single Glaucus atlanticus (blue serpent nudi). Once I had these specimens that had washed up packed away I intended to head to a rock pool but this time of the year, people are out till late, so that was off the cards. I decided to try North Narrabeen lagoon. It gets closed to the open ocean and was hoping that it would be both clear and relatively free of people. Again, not quite so, but I did manage to find some space and began taking images (to much amusement of passers-by) using my Canon 5D MKIII and 100mm macro in a Nauticam housing with 2 x Inon strobes. I tried and tried but with very limited results. I needed to pack up and get home as we were going out for dinner, but I kept thinking on how to get the shot I wanted. I realised I needed to be more prepared for that shot but I wanted to optimise my specimens and get an image.
I got home and poured my sea water, blue bottle, blue serpent nudi cocktail into a black container and went for a topside image, attached my macro ring flash and started shooting as soon as we got back from dinner. A nice controlled environment with clear water is what a studio shot is all about. I used a low angle with a reduction of -1 exposure on the flash to keep reflection low and ensure I wasn't illuminating the bottom of the container.
