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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
The Semaphore Crab is the most abundant crab found in mangroves and coastal estuaries in Eastern Australia. These crabs get their name by the peculiar way they move their arms up and down, almost as if they are signaling. It is not clear if this is a method for males to attract mates, or if it’s a territorial display.
These are very small crabs, the largest not getting any larger than 2.5 cm (1 in) across.
They are detritus feeders (eating the “ooze” left on the surface of the sand after the tide has withdrawn). They feed by constantly picking up sand with their claws and delivering it to the mouth where they sift out the nutrients.
This one was one of thousands I found along the Lane Cove River, near the Buffalo Creek Reserve. just after the tide had receded. It was late afternoon, so I had some strong side lighting working with me, but low light so the on the right claw you see some blur. For those in the Sydney area, this is an excellent area to examine mangrove and tidal wildlife, with boardwalks built to carry you right through the interior of the mangroves, while keeping your feet dry. Buffalo Creek Reserve is on the Great North Walk, and can be accessed via Pittwater Road.
In the workshop, you can see another one that got a little too far from it’s hole when it spotted me. Rather than try and run (with me between it and the hole) it hunkered down in the pebbles to hide. I was impressed with the level of mimicry they utilize and their sense to use it.
Much of this from:
http://www.faunanet.gov.au/wos/factfile.cfm?Fact_ID=67
Workflow was as follow:
Shot in Raw - NEF files adjusted for exposure and shadow maximums
Adjusted levels – for white and black points
Adjusted curves for contrast
Dodged and burned with overlay layer (5% opacity brush)
Added a layer for sharpening and “over-sharpened” with USM
Modified sharpening with a layer mask modified with 25% opacity black brush, to tone down some areas)
Saved as a tiff
For this post, cropped, and applied sharpen edges to the original USM layer, framed, and saved as a jpeg
I found this file particularly frustrating while trying to save. I guess it’s because of the level of detail found with the strong side lighting, and sand (texture). In any case I could not save at a reasonable size and quality level. In the end I had to reduce the file size down to 700 pixels at a quality level of 5 / 12 in PS, to keep under the 200 kb limit. |
Jamesp, pierrefonds has marked this note useful
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Bonne prise de la tęte avec un bon jeu d'onbre.
Bravo
Marie
- arfer
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2686 W: 67 N: 9202]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif)
(28772) - [2007-07-07 14:35]
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Hello John
This week has been hectic,so I am just marking this photo for now and will visit it again soon.
Rob
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- Jamesp
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1185 W: 0 N: 4325]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-n-g.gif)
(12672) - [2007-07-08 23:49]
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Hi John
Great shot showing the crab in its habitat. Good composition and focus.
James
Hi John,
A good POV of the crab, the photo has a good composition, sharpness and nice colors. Thanks for sharing.
Pierre
![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1077 W: 18 N: 689]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-s-g.gif)
(3147)