Nudibranchs are proof that the ocean has a sense of humour and absolutely no interest in subtlety.
Some are brilliantly coloured. Others are almost perfectly camouflaged. They can be smaller than a fingernail, surprisingly large, elegantly simple or spectacularly bizarre. Once you start looking for them, a reef changes completely.
They are also among my favourite underwater macro subjects. Photographing a nudibranch means getting low, getting close and paying attention to the details: rhinophores, gills, texture, background and, if the animal cooperates, something resembling a composition.
This is not intended to be a scientific species database. Identifications shown on LIGHTMAGIC reflect the best information available for the photographed animal, but marine taxonomy changes and mistakes are possible.
What matters most here is the encounter — finding something extraordinary hiding in plain sight and bringing back a photograph of it.