Ok - it took Anya and I four dive trips to finally get to see an octopus. Fortunately, we saw plenty of octopodes on this trip, so I got plenty of good shots. So rather than spend more time typing, I'll just share a handful of shots from our first night dive where we had out first real octopus encounter (technically we saw some during the afternoon dives, but they were hiding, so it doesn't count like this).

This is a Caribbean Reef Octopus (Octopus briareus), which you can tell by that fantastic coloration of bluish-green mottled with reddish-brown.

Mouse-over the thumbnails to view the larger image.

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.

That alone was worth the price of admission!

- Bill