Wavy Grubfish - Edithburgh, South Australia

The Wavy Grubfish, Parapercis haackei is endemic to Southern Australian inshore waters and found on rocky reefs and sandy/rubbly bottoms. A wonderful place to see these cute little critters is of course under and around Edithburgh jetty. Simply rest gently on the sand for a few minutes and you will soon fine at least two or three coming to check you out.

This photo is a classic example of one of the macro photographer's most challenging problems and also most creative tool - depth of field. You will see that in this photo both the mouth and gills are out of focus with a very narrow field of focus through the eyes. Although the depth of field is very narrow, as long as the eyes are in focus the whole picture works. This leaves a wonderful expanse of colour with no detail - negative space, to contrast the subject image.

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert

Photo: Robert Rath C7070WZ 1/60s at f/4.8 ISO100, Lens Inon UCL165AD Macro Lens, Natural Light