Robert's Ramblings

Every diver who has spent any time under the Rapid Bay Jetty’s ‘T-Section’, or lately as I’ve heard it called, ‘The Aquarium’, will recognise this spot.

And almost always perched at the top if this broken piece of pylon will be a magpie perch. You could be forgiven thinking it’s the same magpie perch every time.

This spot is a cleaning station and magpie perch wait their turn to sit here and have tiny little wrasse cleaner fish scour their bodies for parasites. The tiny ones even swim in via the mouth and out via the gills cleaning anything inside as well.

When the jobs done this guy will swim off only to be replaced with the next in line. When another magpie will be perched.


#Pseudogoniistiusnigripes #magpieperch #rapidbay #jetty #southaustralia #scuba #diving #sealife #critters

Lady in red, she’s dancing with me beneath the waves, on the dance floor of the sea.

Our giant cuttlefish are beautiful, gentle and curious creatures. When diving with them you never know how an encounter will go. Sometimes they retreat under a ledge or into some hideaway. Sometimes they linger just out of reach. Sometimes you will be completely ignored and other times they will play and interact in the most amazing of ways.

I have had them try to pull off my mask, or breath through my regulator. On one occasion I am convinced I was challenged to dual of rock-paper-scissors. The cuttlefish won!

On this dive in the shadow of Rapid Bay Jetty, this lady in red just wanted to dance with me.


#Sepiaapama #giantcuttlefish #cuttlefish #mollusc #rapidbay #jetty #southaustralia #scuba #diving #sealife #critters

The unmistakable effect of ‘shallow depth of field’ can bring the most mundane scene into dramatic relief.

Looking around at the world, our eyes and our brains remove this effect and in our minds we imagine we see everything in sharp detail. Nothing could be further from reality.

The uncomplicated view of a camera and lens, laying in the grass with daisies, brings to life the beauty and the drama of even the simplest scene.


#Daisies #heather #grass #nature #bokeh #depthoffield #dof

This gal does not miss a trick. She’s on to me.

She knows I am likely to dislodge a rock accidentally with my fin. Or perhaps I’ll peer under a bit of fallen debris. Either event might deliver some poor morsel into view and unwittingly I'll have delivered dinner.

Wavy grubfish are masters of this game and divers attract their attention like a grumbling stomachs to a free lunch.

This gal’s not missing a trick and I’m sure she’ll be sated by the time I move on.


#critters #fish #macro #marinelife #parapercishaackei #jetty #edithburgh #southaustralia #wavygrubfish #scuba #diving #southaustralia

Twenty meters down colours are not what you’d think they might be. Reds are the first to leave followed by orange, then yellow and finally green.

The world down here amid the broken bones of the Clan Ranald wreck is blue and grey and shadow. A fantastic monochrome world of detail, texture and landscape.

Shine a bright light on coral or sponge or on curious school of bullseyes and moments of red, orange, yellow and green remind that there is so much colour down here, just hidden.

Take out even the blue and this imposing gorganian coral is just as beautiful in monochrome as the deep red it hides from the world.


#Balckandwhite #clanranald #wreck #scuba #diving #southaustralia #bullseyes #diver #gorgonia #coral #monochrome