Pacificklaus Best of 2019

The demons of nature inspired visual art treated me well in 2019. Here is a best-of my underwater photography and videography:

Photography

I managed to shoot a lot of nice macro: nudibranchs, gobies (of course) and invertebrates such as flatworms. The slim goby with the elongated dorsal fin spine, Myersina lachneri, is super rare and was, to my knowledge, not known from the Philippines before.

I really enjoyed photographing in the Natural History Museum in Vienna during a visit back home in May. The fossilized fishes are fascinating, and so is the gigantic skeleton of the biggest marine turtle which ever lived, Archelon.

You can scroll through this best-of Flickr album by clicking on the arrows on the side of the photographs.

Video-wise I got luck as well

These two brief video clips stand out to me. This is one of the most unusual episodes I have ever witnessed underwater. Catfish were stuck to a pufferfish, The catfish were dead or dying – some ind of hostile encounter must have happened, likely in a narrow crevice. The skin venom of the puffer likely killed the catfish.

I am also happy with this footage of a sea slug, Armina, shot in Bolinao, shot with the Ino “Bug eye” close-focus macro lens, and sped up to a mild time-lapse.