Green Moray - How Close is TOO Close?

[Daylon]

Talk about things that make you go "Waaaaaaaah! Run Away!"

The best shots of my entire trip - on the last dive I found this cute lil guy. All these shots were taken with a 105mm Micro-Nikkor lens, and they are unzoomed... so this is full frame goodness from about 6 inches away. He was about 6 feet long, and his head was about ten inches long, with roughly the same jaw spread.

The scary part was that on the Aquatica U/W SLR housing the focus ring knob is in the very front of the camera, right under the front of the flat port. So my fingers were actually closer to his mouth than the lens of the camera.

Needless to say, I tried to move VERY slowly with my left hand.

"Where's that lil bugger go?"


"Bad Parking Job"


"Grinnin"


"The Deep"


"Come here Wee Man, I'm Gonna Eat YA!"


"Heere Be Dragons..."

[mjdmike]

Awesome series Daylon, excellent work. Yikes!

[Goaliesgirl]

I am a total dork because I have been waiting to see these pictures!
These are so cool. He looks REALLY MEAN.

[PhotosbyHollyWood]

okay that totally gave me the heebie geebies...

great shots... but knowing that you were that close... Oh lord..

[123canon]

yep, that's ttttoooo close! nice shots. got lucky to see a small one in cozumel a few years back, wish i would have had a u/w housing.

[Al Buckner]

Really great shots... now that's what I would call a sea monster! Especially that close.

[Teddington]

Originally Posted by 123canon

yep, that's ttttoooo close! nice shots. got lucky to see a small one in cozumel a few years back, wish i would have had a u/w housing.

Nawww, I think you were just right. You're not too close until a body part breaks the plane of his open jaw. I saw one of these guys while diving in Grand Cayman at Thanksgiving but he was much shyer (?) and wouldn't let me anywhere near this close.

[jamesw]

"Stick your hand in a crack and you won't get it back. That's a MORAY!!!!!"

Beautiful shots and interesting angles. A bit hot on my monitor though.

Cheers
James

[Daylon]

To bring the green out nice I had to boost the exposure something like +2.00 - so it blew out that coral in the foreground a bit - I guess I could layer it and burn it down a little, just lazy. LOL!

D.

If anyone wants to see the full series - I've got a slide show on my site.

www.daylon.us --->click on slideshows ----> turks and caicos trip

It's about 60 pics, topside and underwater - about 2-3 min or so if anyone's interested.

Originally Posted by jamesw

"Stick your hand in a crack and you won't get it back. That's a MORAY!!!!!"

Beautiful shots and interesting angles. A bit hot on my monitor though.

Cheers
James

[dive4fun]

AWESOME series! A friend knows how close is too close- his thumb will never be the same..... ;( Really, they are not aggressive and this guy was obviously 'sedated' at a cleaning station. Love love LOVE it!

[Daylon]

You're correct - he was having a little spa treatment... not to say that having a camera less than a foot from your face going "BLAM!" at full flash over and over again wouldn't start to annoy ya a bit....

Maybe I got lucky and he was a photo-epileptic eel....

D.

Originally Posted by dive4fun

AWESOME series! A friend knows how close is too close- his thumb will never be the same..... ;( Really, they are not aggressive and this guy was obviously 'sedated' at a cleaning station. Love love LOVE it!

[CaptainTom]

Nice Daylon
Were you doing research for some kind of future thespian roles ??

A few years ago I was in Key West on pretty much my first snorkel adventure.
The only "experience" I had ever seen in this type of activity was on Jacque Cousteau's TV show. I ran into a green eel like this one. I had seen them petting the eels on TV and thought that would be fun. Fortunately my snorkeling buddy grabbed my flippers and pulled me very rapidly away from certain injury. A little while later another snorkeler came back with teeth marks on one of his flippers.

[Daylon]

Nyah, just taking an intensive underwater photog course... he was a big boy (about 7 feet) - I was more concerned about him petting ME...

D.

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

Nice Daylon
Were you doing research for some kind of future thespian roles ??

A few years ago I was in Key West on pretty much my first snorkel adventure.
The only "experience" I had ever seen in this type of activity was on Jacque Cousteau's TV show. I ran into a green eel like this one. I had seen them petting the eels on TV and thought that would be fun. Fortunately my snorkeling buddy grabbed my flippers and pulled me very rapidly away from certain injury. A little while later another snorkeler came back with teeth marks on one of his flippers.

[jonesphoto]

I really like the last four the most! Looking straight down an eel's throat is not a view you get to see often. lol

[LEATHERNECK]

Just one more finely photographed reason I don't go in the water.