NAD Lembeh, Pulau Lembeh, Bitung (2026)

29/04/2026

The Coconut Octopus is probably the most "human" of the cephalopods in terms of its problem-solving. While other species rely on speed or pure camouflage, these guys are tool users. On the open sand flats where there is nowhere to run, they’ve learned to scavenge for anything that can act as a shield. Seeing one "stilt-walking"—carrying two halves of a coconut shell under its body while shuffling across the silt—is easily one of the strangest bits of behaviour you’ll see underwater.

It’s a masterclass in making the most of what you’ve got. If they can’t find a coconut, they’ll settle for large clam shells or even bits of discarded plastic. They don’t just find these objects and stay there; they haul them for huge distances across the sand. Once they find a spot they like, they’ll dig a small depression and pull the shells together, tucking every te****le inside until they are completely sealed off from the outside world.

From a photography perspective, the "shell-peek" is a classic shot. If you rest quietly nearby and wait for them to get used to your presence, they’ll eventually push the shells apart just enough to look at you with their eyes. It’s a great way to capture the texture of the suckers and the sharp, intelligent look in their eyes without the animal feeling the need to retreat.

A challenge is catching them while they are on the move. They are surprisingly quick when they want to be, and trying to track an octopus that is essentially "carrying its house" while running on its arms is no easy feat.

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26/04/2026

The Ornate Ghostpipefish is easily one of the most decorative residents of the reef. They are masters of blending in with crinoids (feather stars), with bodies covered in intricate, skin-like filaments that mimic the fronds of their host. Unlike their cousins, the Robust Ghostpipefish, which look like drifting seagrass, the Ornate variety is a riot of colour—mixes of reds, yellows, and blacks that would be obvious anywhere else but makes them invisible against a busy reef background.

What makes their behaviour unique is how they "hover." They often hang upside down, swaying gently to look like a piece of drifting debris. This isn't just for protection; it’s a hunting strategy. They are "sit-and-wait" predators, using their long, tubular snouts to suck up tiny crustaceans that venture too close. They are often found in pairs, with the larger female carrying her eggs inside a specialised brood pouch formed by her pelvic fins—a distinct difference from seahorses, where the male handles the brooding.

From a photography perspective, these fish are a fantastic challenge. Because they are so thin and often hide within the branches of a crinoid, getting a clean, unobstructed shot is difficult. If you spot an individual or pair out in the open or against a dark background, this allows those vibrant patterns to stand out.

The eyes are small and often camouflaged by the surrounding patterns, so getting them sharp can be tricky. Using a narrow aperture (high f-stop) is essential to keep the full length of the snout and the ornate fins in focus. Since they tend to turn away from a lens, patience is the only way to get that perfect profile.

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24/04/2026

The White-V Octopus, often called the Long-arm Octopus, is one of the more frantic cephalopods you’ll encounter on the sand flats. They are easily identified by the distinct, pale "V" mark on the top of their mantle and their unusually long, spindly te****les. Unlike a Reef Octopus that might sit and watch you, the White-V is almost always on the move, using a "pulling" motion to drag itself across the silt in search of its next meal.

Their hunting behaviour is particularly interesting to watch. Because they have such long reach, they often probe deep into holes or under bits of rubble while keeping their body at a safe distance. They are masters of the "mimicry" walk as well; when they want to move quickly without being noticed, they can bunch up their arms to look like a tuft of drifting algae or a piece of discarded coconut husk.

For photography, the White-V can be a bit of a challenge because of its sheer length. If you try to get the whole animal in the frame, you often lose the detail of the iconic patterns on the head. A better approach is to focus on a tighter "face" shot or wait for them to pause and coil their arms, which creates a much more manageable composition.

Lighting these guys on the dark volcanic sand requires a delicate touch. Their skin has a slightly reflective quality, and if your strobes are too "hot," you’ll wash out the subtle white patterns that give them their name. Using a snoot with a wide open aperture can give some lighting on the animal whilst the rest of the image has a soft blue effect.

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22/04/2026

Most people only ever see flying fish as silver blurs skipping across the surface during a boat crossing, but encountering them on a blackwater dive is a completely different experience. At night, these pelagic specialists often hang just below the surface, suspended in the dark. Seeing them stationary in the water column allows you to actually appreciate their specialised anatomy—specifically those massive, wing-like pectoral fins that are usually quite motionless when they aren't in flight.

The "flight" itself is an incredible bit of physics. To escape predators like tuna or mackerel, they swim toward the surface at high speeds, breaking the waterline and immediately spreading those oversized fins to glide. They can cover dozens of metres in a single go, sometimes dipping their tails back into the water to get a fresh burst of momentum without fully submerging. On a night dive, however, you aren't seeing the glide; you’re seeing the fish in its "off" mode.

Photographing them in the blackwater is notoriously difficult. They are highly reflective, and their skin acts like a mirror to your strobes, making it very easy to overexpose the shot into a featureless silver silhouette. You have to be careful with your positioning; if you approach quickly, they’ll "bolt" and disappear into the darkness. The goal is to get close enough to capture the texture of the fins and the "whiskers" without triggering that flight response.

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17/04/2026

While their scientific names are Thecacera, almost everyone on the boat just calls it the "Pikachu" nudi. It’s not hard to see why—the bright orange, yellow and white body and the black-tipped rhinophores and stalks make it look exactly like the Pokémon. It is one of the more distinctive nudibranchs in the Strait, usually found crawling over bryozoans or rubble in areas with a bit of water movement.

They aren't the largest nudibranchs you'll find, typically reaching about 2 or 3 centimetres, but their colour makes them very easy to spot even from a distance. Unlike some of the more cryptic species that try to blend into the silt, the Thecacera seems to rely on its bold warning colouration. It’s a clear signal to predators that they aren't particularly tasty, a common trait among sea slugs.

From a photography perspective, these are great subjects because they don't tend to hide under ledges or other tricky positions as much as other species. However, their shape can be a bit of a challenge to compose. Because they have those prominent, horn-like appendages (the rhinophores and the extra-branchial appendages), getting the right angle to keep everything in a pleasing plane of focus is tricky. A head-on shot or a slight "three-quarters" view usually works best to show off the "ears" that give them their nickname.

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11/04/2026

The Bargibanti Pygmy Seahorse is an iconic example of niche evolution you’ll find on a dive. These pygmies don't just live near gorgonian sea fans—they are biologically tethered to them. Their entire surface is covered in calcified bumps that match the colour and shape of the polyps. Divers can stare at a fan for five minutes and see nothing, only for three or four seahorses to suddenly "appear" once their eyes adjust to the pattern.

Because they are so reliant on their host, their behaviour is mostly sedentary. They use their prehensile tails to anchor themselves to the branches, often sitting in pairs or small groups. They spend a huge portion of their day snapping up tiny crustaceans that drift past in the current. It’s a low-energy, high-efficiency lifestyle that depends entirely on staying hidden; if they lose their fan, they lose their only line of defence.

For those trying to take a photo, the difficulty level is high. These fish are light-sensitive and will often turn their backs to a lens as soon as they feel the glow of a focus light. The key is to be quick. Aiming for a side-on profile shows the "tubercles" against the fan, and try to get the eye as sharp as possible. Since they are often under two centimetres, you’ll likely need a diopter to really fill the frame and see the detail in their skin.

Buoyancy is an important part of the encounter. Many of these fans live in areas with a bit of flow, and since the seahorses and sea-fan are so fragile, you have to be able to avoid touching the reef. A snoot can help direct the lighting, but a standard dual-strobe setup works well if you want full exposure on the coral too. It’s a patient, technical process, but it’s the best way to document one of the most specialised animals in the ocean.

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10/04/2026

The Blue-ringed Octopus is arguably the most famous find in the Strait, though they are much smaller than most people expect—usually around the size of a golf ball. For most of the dive, they look like a nondescript, yellowish piece of rubble. It’s only when they are hunting or feel threatened that the "rings" appear. These are a series of brilliant, iridescent blue circles that flash across the body and te****les, acting as a clear warning that the animal is carrying tetrodotoxin, a potent neurotoxin.

You typically find them in the rubble zones, often tucked inside hard coral or rocky patches. They are active hunters, primarily targeting small crabs and shrimp by pinning them down and delivering a nasty bite. Because they are so small and cryptic, you really have to slow down your pace and scan the debris carefully. If you see a small, pale shape moving quickly across the sand before vanishing into a hole, there’s a good chance it’s a Blue-ring.

From a photography perspective, the goal is to try capture some of their famous behaviours whilst seeing the colour of the rings . If you crowd them too much, they’ll simply retreat into a hole and stay there. The best strategy is to stay low and wait for them to settle. Once they realise you aren't a predator, they may continue marching around and hunting, giving you a chance to capture something unique.

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08/04/2026

The Flamboyant Cuttlefish is one of the few cephalopods that spends more time "walking" than swimming. Instead of jetting through the water, it uses its lower arms and mantle flaps to crawl across the silt like a tank. This ground-based approach keeps it stable as it hunts for small crustaceans in the muck, and it’s usually how you’ll find them—slowly patrolling the sand flats.

Despite its small size, this is one of the only known poisonous cephalopods. The pulsing waves of yellow, purple, and white that ripple across its skin aren't just for show; they are a clear warning to predators that its muscle tissue is highly toxic. When the animal is relaxed, it looks like a piece of dead wood or a clump of debris, but as soon as it feels crowded, it "turns on" the colour. It’s a classic example of aposematism, where the brightest animal on the sand is often the most dangerous to eat.

For photography, the challenge is all about timing and lighting. Because they live on the silt, backscatter is a constant battle. You want to refrain from lighting up the water in between you and the subject or using a snoot to give yourself an increased chance or reducing backscatter. To really get those saturated purples and yellows to pop, you need to wait for the cuttlefish to start its display. If you sit back and give it a bit of space, it will often go about its business, pulsing with colour as it moves.

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#水中写真 #ダイビング

04/04/2026

The Cyerce nigra is one of the more visually complex sap-sucking slugs you’ll find on the reef. Often mistaken for a nudibranch, this sacoglossan is defined by its "cerata"—large, leaf-like appendages that cover its back. These structures are usually a deep black or dark brown, but they’re outlined in high-contrast neon oranges, yellows, or whites. When the slug moves, these cerata ripple and flex, creating a fragmented silhouette that looks more like a cluster of algae than a mobile mollusc.

Unlike many of their cousins, these slugs aren't looking for sponges; they are specialised herbivores. Using a sharp, needle-like radula, they pierce the cell walls of specific algae to suck out the sap. You’ll typically find them in shallow, algae-rich areas where they can graze undisturbed. While some related species can actually "farm" chloroplasts from their food to perform photosynthesis, there isn't much evidence that Cyerce nigra does the same. Instead, they rely entirely on the nutrients they extract from the reef’s greenery.

They aren't particularly fast, but they are delicate. Those leaf-like appendages are actually a defence mechanism; if a predator bites at them, the slug can cast off its cerata (a process called autotomy) to create a distraction while it escapes. Because of this, it's important to be extremely careful with your positioning and buoyancy. A clean shot of a Cyerce nigra against a contrasting background is a great addition to any macro collection, showing off one of the more artistic designs found in the shallows.

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01/04/2026

Blackwater diving usually turns up some pretty strange larval stages, but finding a post-larval frogfish is a real highlight. At this stage, they are barely a few millimetres long but already look similar to the sedentary adults we find on the reef. Instead of "walking" on the sand, these tiny juveniles are pelagic drifters, floating in the open water column and developing the features they’ll need once they eventually settle on the bottom.

This one already had already developed the fins that will eventually become their "feet," and you can even spot a tiny, developing lure on the snout. Because juveniles are often transparent with just a few specks of pigment, they are incredibly difficult to track in the water column. They don't swim so much as bob along, using the currents to move between feeding grounds.

From a photography perspective, these are some of the most challenging subjects in the dark. They are tiny, erratic, and the "backscatter" in the water column can easily distract your focus. The trick is to approach slow and in full control of your body position to help with tracking the tiny critter. Turning your focus light down to a low power will help alleviate some of the distracting elements whilst you try to focus.

You’re essentially trying to shoot a moving grain of rice with a macro lens while maintaining your buoyancy over deep water in the dark.

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#水中写真 #ダイビング

27/03/2026

Whip coral shrimp are small, even by Lembeh standards. Usually measuring under two centimetres, they spend their entire lives on strands of whip coral. Their evolution is a masterclass in camouflage; their bodies are shaped and coloured to perfectly match the polyps of their host, often appearing as nothing more than a slight thickening of the coral's branch. Unless they move, they are almost invisible against the bright yellows, greens or oranges of the whip.

The biggest challenge when diving with these shrimp is their "hide-and-seek" instinct. They are incredibly sensitive to pressure waves and will rapidly shuffle to the opposite side of the coral as soon as a camera gets close. If you try to chase them by moving your lens around the wire, they’ll just keep rotating away from you. The trick is to settle in one spot and wait for them to get curious. Eventually, they’ll creep back around into your frame.

From a photography perspective, shooting a thin "stick" in the water can lead to a very messy background. To get a clean shot, try to align your camera along the length of the coral rather than shooting it from the side. Using a wide aperture (low f-stop) or snoot helps either blur out or darken the reef debris behind the subject, making the sharp details of the shrimp’s eyes and translucent legs stand out.

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#水中写真 #ダイビング

25/03/2026

The Decorated Dartfish is one of those subjects that really stands out in the muck diving environment of the Lembeh Strait. With a slender, pale body that fades into a deep purple or burgundy tail, it’s a high-contrast fish that usually hovers a few inches above the substrate. You’ll typically find them on the deeper sand slopes or near the base of reef walls, where they hang in the current to pick off passing plankton.

They are called "dartfish" for a reason. Each fish has a specific hole—usually a small burrow or a crevice in the rubble—and they never stray more than a flick of the tail away from it. If you move too fast or make too much noise, they vanish instantly. Unlike the more common Fire Dartfish, the decorated tends to be a bit more selective about its habitat, sometimes appearing in pairs that hover in tandem.

From a photography perspective, one favourite shot is catching the fish with its long, fin-like dorsal spine fully extended. This spine is a clear indicator of the fish's mood; it flicks up and down when they are alert or communicating with a partner. Because they are so skittish, you have to play a waiting game. If you settle down low and stay still, they will eventually rise back out of their hole and resume their hovering position.

To get the colours right, you need to be careful with your strobe power. The white foreground of the body is easy to overexpose, while the deep purples of the fins can disappear into the shadows if the light is too directional. Using a slightly softer, diffused light setup helps preserve that delicate colour gradient. It’s a test of patience and buoyancy, but seeing this beautiful reef fish hovering perfectly still makes for a great addition to any macro portfolio.

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#水中写真 #ダイビング

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