Today's subject was so abundant on the reefs on this trip, that I literally got tired of trying to take photos of them. Their bristle-like hairs really played havoc on the camera's focus and exposure systems. They also never stopped moving - though they didn't swim around quickly like a fish, they did have a continuous methodical movement that made them a bit difficult to work with. I managed plenty of good shots of them none-the-less, and by the end of the week, I would just swim right on past them unless it was a really interesting individual. This one in particular was sitting on a bright orange sponge that matched its color pretty well, and I was able to time a shot pretty well to get it crawling over the edge of the sponge and in a nice composition.

They are called Bearded Fireworms (Hermodice carunculata) and get their name from those tufts of white bristles all along their length. The bristles are supposedly like getting bits of fiberglass under your skin - painful, irritating, and itchy. I saw ones as small as a half inch, all the way up to about eight inches; they also ranged in color from this bright reddish orange shown here, to yellow, red, green, brown, and even white.

This particular specimen I liked because of the nice combination of orange on orange, and then add in that the white bristles made it look like it was glowing or other-worldly, and I couldn't pass up taking this shot.

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.

If you're getting tired of the dive photos, tune in tomorrow as I'm going to take a little break and share some shots I took of my father-in-law's small robot sculptures.

- Bill