One of the things we hear the most when talking to underwater photographers is “I have a whole hard drive full of fish butts!” I believe everyone knows the feeling of sneaking up on an underwater subject to get just that much closer when “boom” the subject you have just spent endless time stalking suddenly turns and speeds off just as you pull the trigger! The resulting photo is what is lovingly called a “fish butt” shot and I know I have a hard drive full of them myself! In fact, I have often thought about publishing a book called “Butts of the Pacific” but then I figured it may get banned for censorship reasons so unfortunately I have yet to do so! However, not all “butt shots” are created equal, in fact, I think this small hawksbill turtle has a lovely butt, he sure did spend a lot of time with his beak in a hole eating sponges and showing me nothing but butt until I ran out of air, therefore, before heading up I had to snap off at least one photo of this turtle and I believe the result wasn’t too bad, for a butt shot!
This was taken at Whale Rock in the incredible Misool area of Raja Ampat where we will be heading again in 2017!
