Denise’s Pygmy Seahorse

Blogged by Simon on November 25, 2009 11:33am | Last updated by Simon on April 19, 2010 11:46am | Category: Underwater Photography | Get a Print Get a Print |

Yellow Pygmy Seahorse (Hippocampus Denise)Here is another species of seahorse (Hippocampus denise), our divemaster Ben found at Blade, Wakatobi. Denise’s Pygmy seahorses are slightly smaller (around 2cm length) than the Bargibant’s seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti) and is one of the smallest known fish on the reef. They also live on Gorgonian sea fans, both (Annella) which are pale pink and 2-3m wide, and in this image (Echinogorgia) which are smaller, orange sea fans. Notice how the seahorse is perfectly camouflaged and the bumps on it’s body match the ones on the Echinogorgia fan.

Camera settings: f/25, 1/60s, ISO 200. I edited this photo in Aperture to recover some blown out highlights from overflashing, took back exposure -10%, and bumped up saturation by the same amount. I then used dodge&burn in Photoshop to fade unwanted background elements between the branches into black to make the subject stand out better.

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