Today's subject is an interesting one... It is called a Snapping or Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus armatus). As you can see in the shot below, they have that one larger claw - but I'll let the video explain why that is cool. These guys were somewhat easy to find on the reef because they usually were found hiding underneath the Corkscrew Anemone (Bartholomea annulata). Unfortunately, that also made them difficult to photograph as they usually were partially obscured, and there was plenty of other things for the AF system to pick up.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/120th sec at f/16. Image Stabilization on. ISO 100. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in TTL Mode. Raw conversion in Photoshop CS5.

I didn't take the following video (though I certainly wish I worked for the BBC), but take a minute or so and see just how impressive that tiny little claw is...

Pretty obvious where the name comes from, huh?

- Bill