These photos were taken September of 2004 around Komodo, Indonesia with a Canon 1D Mark II DSLR (8.2 megapixels), SeaCam housing, dual Inon Z220 strobes.

Blue-ringed octopus - only the size of a plum, this little fellow's beak packs a deadly poison that'll kill a human in about 15 minutes. Don't touch!

Blue-ringed Octopus camouflage. Note that not only has he made his skin COLOR whitish, but has changed the TEXTURE to look gritty/"sandy".

Dumpling or bob-tailed squid - found on a wreck during a night dive, this little fellow (the size of a large grape) was an irridescent delight!

Pygmy seahorse with finger for scale

Pygmy seahorse - pregnant male

Pygmy Seahorse close-up

2 Pygmy Seahorses - pregnant male with non-pregnant partner (gender unknown)

Blue Ribbon Eel - another "little critter" - about the size of a pencil, these little guys act outraged that you disturbed their peace!

Anthias family

Semicircle Angelfish

Emperor Angelfish

Three-spot Angelfish

Longfin Bannerfish

Schooling Bannerfish

Humphead Bannerfish

Circular Batfish - juvenile

Circular Batfish

They went thataway! This assortment of fish - a jack, Napoleon wrasse, yellow goatfish and a few others -- were all in a hurry to get over this reef!

Bulbous anemone

Green Anemone

Tunicates

Eclipse Butterflyfish

Longnosed Butterflyfish

Clark's Anemonefish - juvenile

Clark's Anemonefish

Spinecheek Anemonefish (also called Maroon)

Pink Anemonefish above anemone nearly closed

Clown Anemonefish

Clown Anemonefish

Clown Anemonefish

Coral Grouper in barrel sponge

Coronetfish

Coronetfish head

Decorator Crab - he has attached several LIVE anemones to his shell for camouflage, and hauls the whole community around with him!

Porcelain Crabs in anemone

Porcelain crab - note the "nets" he uses to sweep food out of the water

Porcelain crab with "nets" completely in his mouth.

Flathead or crocodile fish

Crinoid atop sponge

Cuttlefish trying to look fierce

Cuttlefish trying to look dangerous

Notice how spiky he's made his skin

Cuttlefish now with smooth skin makes his getaway

Arrow dartfish

Yellowmargin Moray Eel with cleaner wrasse

Barred-fin Moray Eel

Illegal fish trap -- we hauled this trap off the reef onto the sand, cut it open to free the fish, and then notified authorities where it was located.

Blue-streak Gobies

Spotted Shrimp Goby

Orange-dashed Gobies

Volitan lionfish

Volitan lionfish closeup

Zebra lionfish

Manta Rays at Manta Alley

Juvenile Napoleon wrasse

Nudibranch

Nudibranch with lizardfish

This nudi crawled right up to the lizardfish, "felt" his cheek, and moved on. The lizardfish never moved, obviously not wanting to blow his camouflage.

This delicate looking nudibranch was one none of us (nor the dive master) had ever seen before.

Nudibranch

Nudibranch

Nudibranch

Nudibranch

Nudibranch

Nudibranch

Nudibranch

Octopus - fairly large (by non-Puget Sound standards), probably due to the abundance of food, most of the ones we saw were roughly basketball sized.

Octopus can change color and skin texture in a matter of seconds. This is the same one as in the previous photo who was white a few minutes earlier.

Same Octopus only about 10 seconds later - note color and texture change again...

And this is the same octopus a few seconds later, when he got annoyed at me and decided to try to look spiny and dangerous.

Parrotfish sleeping

Bumphead parrotfish - usually traveling in groups of 5-10, these 3-foot long giants consume a lot of coral with their beaklike mouths.

Blackspotted Puffer - like many other puffers, these fellows take refuge in barrel sponges at night.

Pygmy cuttlefish - full grown, these little fellows (approx. 2 inches long) moved very slowly, apparently hoping to blended in enough to be safe...

Masked Rabbitfish

Crinoids

Schooling surgeonfish

Scorpionfish

Scorpionfish

Leaf scorpionfish

Leaf Scorpionfish head

Leaf Scorpionfish

After photographing two of these pink leaf scorpionfish on the ground for awhile, I noticed a THIRD one atop the reef a few feet away!

Sea apple - found nowhere else in the world, these creatures were unexciting when closed, but...

Sea Apple feeding...when feeding, they can be quite beautiful!

Sea Apple feeding

Sea Apple feeding

Small sea snake with damselfish

White-tip shark with remora - note how "well-fed" he looks; the entire food chain was amazingly healthy.

Bigeye Soldierfish

Spanish dancer

Spanish dancer gills

Spanish dancer swimming

Sea Star

Sea Star

Red-toothed Triggerfish

Orange-lined Triggerfish

Pink-tail Triggerfish

Titan Triggerfish

Spotted Boxfish - male

Yellow Boxfish - juvenile

Dogtooth tuna

Turtle

Turtle

Unicornfish being cleaned

Whip goby

Zebra crab in urchin

Proper technique for picking up a Komodo dragon by the tail

BMW K1200LT being envied by a hogfish (motorcyclists will catch the irony in that). Note: not done in Photoshop; it's an actual laminated photo.