We asked our contributors to share their favorite underwater images that show sunny or citrus colors such as lemon, lime, orange and grapefruit, and they returned with an exuberant collection of macro to wide-angle shots featuring a variety of marine life.
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(To see all the photos in this article, please scroll down to the end and download the PDF.)
Here, X-Ray Mag contributors share their chosen images from the tropical waters of Fiji, the Great Barrier Reef, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Palau, the Philippines, the Egyptian Red Sea and Mexico to the subtropical and temperate waters of South Africa, the US East Coast and Vancouver, Canada.
A Splash of Sunshine Beneath the Surface
Text and photos by Kate Jonker
The waters of Cape Town’s False Bay may be cool—often between 10 and 15°C—but they are anything but dull. Against this green, nutrient-rich backdrop, bursts of citrus colour bring a sense of sunshine to even the chilliest of dives. From the delicate golden polyps of sunburst soft corals to the bold orange of gasflame nudibranchs and feather duster worms, these hues light up the reef like tiny rays of summer sunshine. A bright yellow false plum anemone adds warmth to a shadowy reef, while the kelp forests at Rooi Els glow with the yellows of sponges and the fiery orange of sea fans.
These colours not only brighten up the reef—they lift the mood. They turn an ordinary temperate dive into something joyful and full of life. It is a beautiful reminder that even in the coldest waters, there is always light, colour and energy—if you know where to look. Visit: katejonker.com
Citrus Yellow and Orange
Text and photos by John A. Ares
Yellow and orange are two colors found in citrus fruits and are highly visible underwater. However, these bright colors can hide similarly colored creatures on the reef. In Photo 1, the yellow crinoid and the crinoid shrimp, which was found by the divemaster on the dive, demonstrate the camouflage of the shrimp.
The spiny tiger shrimp in Photo 2 has a complex orange and white pattern, with both white and blue spots. This shrimp was also found by the divemaster on the dive and was only about an inch long.
Photo 3 shows a reticulated wart slug. This nudibranch was very easy to find. It was about two inches long. The most difficult aspect of photographing it was determining the angle from which to shoot it. The stark black and yellow makes for a compelling photo. Visit: JohnAres.com
A Fruity Theme
Text and photos by Sheryl Checkman
Even in the depths of the sea, there is still sunshine to be found. There are sunny, citrusy colors to be found in the reefs of the underwater world and the life that inhabits them.
If you use your imagination, the close-up in Photo 1 of a lemon-colored anemone, which is home to a family of false clownfish, looks like the top of a lemon sorbet. The orange and white anemonefish top it off like a colorful garnish.
Continuing this fruity theme, the citrus pink and yellow soft corals at Blue Heron Bridge in West Palm Beach, Florida, look good enough to eat, while a lime and aqua-colored scrawled filefish seen on a night dive at the House Reef off the resort in Alor, Indonesia, looks like a popsicle.
Sometimes, we divers add our own sunny colors to the underwater landscape. A diver on the WWII Iro Maru wreck in Palau is sporting this color theme on her wetsuit, goggles and headscarf. The wreck, a former Japanese freighter, sits at about 80ft. The highlight created by my strobe on the coral-encrusted wreck casts a lemony hue against the blue of the surrounding ocean. Visit: Instagram.com/SherylCheckman
Fresh Citrus Hues
Text and photos by Lureen Ferretti
With summer on the horizon, my mind drifts to the joys of long, sunny days and the explosion of fresh, local citrus hues everywhere. If you are missing out on this colorful paradise where you live, don’t worry—there are vibrant, sunny places around the world that bring citrusy colors to life beneath the waves!
Let’s start with my backyard at the Blue Heron Bridge in Florida, USA. I was fortunate enough to capture a tender moment between two bold and beautiful longsnout seahorses (Hippocampus reidi), the smaller yellow female in front and the larger orange male behind her. Love in the water column with these beauties—a precious moment I will never forget.
Then there is the depressed spider crab (Xenocarcinus depressus). Sure, its long, spindly legs make it look like a creepy spider, but it is just a bright orange and yellow crab with red accents, mimicking the gorgonian in which it hides.
Not to be overshadowed by the critters, the reef itself can also steal the spotlight! At the Citrus Ridge dive site in Indonesia, you will find an entire wall of soft corals in 100 shades of orange. Picture yourself drifting alongside nature’s own masterpiece. It is a dream you will not want to wake up from.
And we cannot leave out Fiji! Here, the reefs offer a kaleidoscope of color with golden damselfish, fiery yellows, bold oranges, passionate reds and a symphony of soft coral hues that make every dive unforgettable. Visit: instagram.com/lureenferrettiphotography
Citrus-Colored Sea Creatures
Text and photos by Anita George-Ares, PhD
The golden damselfish in Photo 1 appears as a beacon of light sailing through the darkness. The image was taken during the day. The exposure settings resulted in a black background. This species lays its eggs on gorgonians. The male guards and aerates the eggs until they hatch. Golden damselfish are plankton eaters.
Crinoid squat lobsters occur in a variety of colors. The orange squat lobster and the yellow tips of the crinoid arms in Photo 2 give the image a cheery and energetic feel while contrasting nicely with the black stem of the crinoid. Squat lobsters are more closely related to hermit crabs than to lobsters. Like their crinoid hosts, squat lobsters feed on plankton.
The yellow scroll coral and orange anthias in Photo 3 provide a bright spot in the surrounding blue coolness. Scroll corals are widely distributed in the Red Sea and Indo-Pacific. The bright yellow color highlights the texture of the knobby corallites, which are the skeletal cups that contain the coral polyps.
Most coral species are hermaphroditic, meaning that a coral colony contains both eggs and sperm. Scroll coral colonies are either male or female (Richmond and Hunter, 1990). The release of eggs and sperm occurs simultaneously. Visit: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100016947967639
References:
fishbase.org/summary/Amblyglyphidodon-aureus.html
Richmond RH and Hunter CL. 1990. Reproduction and recruitment of corals: comparisons among the Caribbean, the Tropical Pacific, and the Red Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series 60:185-203.
Oranges and Lemons
Text and photos by Matthew Meier
I love finding bright, bold colors underwater, so the citrus theme for this article immediately sent me looking for fun critters that scream of oranges and lemons. Happily, it was not a complicated task, as there were plenty of vibrant species proudly standing out in the crowd.
The images I chose go back nearly 20 years, starting with a photograph of yellow female redfin anthias swimming above a feather star, which was shot on film during a night dive in Papua New Guinea. Ten years later, I photographed a yellow leaf scorpionfish on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, using strobe angles and exposure to create a black background. The following year, in the Philippines, I found a cooperative yellow thorny seahorse tucked into an orange sponge.
Finally, the last two images were shot in Indonesia just before the COVID-19 pandemic, using strobe angles and homemade snoots to knock out the background. The bright yellow hairy frogfish was just beginning to sprout its hairy filaments as it walked across the black muck of Lembeh Strait, presumably in search of a yellow sponge to camouflage itself with, although I had not seen anything remotely yellow at this dive site.
I found the shortfin lionfish in Ambon, sporting a bit of both yellow and orange, and it was simply too attractive not to include. There were so many others that fit the theme, but I hope you like the selection. Visit: MatthewMeierPhoto.com
Vivid Cheerfulness
Text and photos by Brandi Mueller
A sunny pop of yellow or a deep citrusy orange is always fun to see underwater. These vibrant colors are particularly emphasized in a place that loses light as the depth increases.
On a recent trip to Anilao in the Philippines, I found dots of vivid cheerfulness in numerous places. For example, there was an orange frogfish that could have been mistaken for a large orange peel surrounded by dark sand in the muck. Trumpetfish can change color and are usually quite drab to blend in with their surroundings, but I found one that was bright yellow with its mouth wide open.
A school of yellowtail snappers reflected the light, which made them glisten like sunbeams, and a false clownfish of bright orange was hiding in a lemon-colored anemone with green tips, like the leaves of a lemon tree. Visit: brandiunderwater.com
Bright, Yellow and Sunny
Text and photos by Gary Rose, MD
One of the things I love about diving and underwater photography is the ability to find a seemingly endless supply of subjects. Whether diving in local or international waters, there is a rule that always holds true: The colors with longer wavelengths—red, orange and yellow—are absorbed close to the surface and disappear within the first 35-50ft (~11-15m) unless you bring your own light source.
One of the most impressive scenes I have ever seen while diving is captured in Photo 1. As a giant black manta ray in the Revillagigedo Islands (Socorro), Mexico, glided right below me, I was amazed at how truly huge it was, with a wingspan of up to 23ft (7m). However, my attention was quickly diverted to the following Clarion fish, which appeared to be vibrant globes of sunlight trailing behind the giant manta ray. They created a striking contrast to the surrounding deep blue of the sea, hundreds of miles south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Lemon sharks get their name from the light lemon-tan color of their skin (Photo 2). I always enjoy safety stops after diving with lemon sharks during their annual aggregation at Jupiter, Florida. They are very social and love to accompany divers to the surface. Their antics and playfulness provide many opportunities to capture beautiful sunlit photographs that highlight the interaction of surface sunlight on their yellow-tan skin.
When diving on deeper wrecks, divers will immediately see the loss of the longer wavelengths of light—red, orange, yellow. Divers should always carry two independent light sources for safety while diving on wrecks. The other benefit is to illuminate the otherwise filtered colors, which can be brilliant and breathtaking. Photo 3 demonstrates the beauty of a French angelfish captured by the additional light provided by my strobes. The contrast of the bright yellow against the various shades of blue lights up the entire scene.
We often see jacks when diving. Being large and very fast, they are very successful predators. The black jack in Photo 4 was hunting at sunset, just off the Revillagigedo Islands in Mexico. The black background showcases the subtle yet striking yellow iridescence of its dorsal skin. The conspicuous jet-black scutes along the base of the tail make them exceptionally efficient swimmers.
I always appreciate the amazing colors to be discovered on each dive. I bring at least one light source with me on all dives, which essentially acts as portable and independent “sunlight”. This enables me to see and cherish the surrounding cornucopia of color. Visit: garyrosephotos.com
Warmth and Vibrancy
Text and photos by Olga Torrey
Sunny and citrus colors are often associated with warmth and vibrancy. On a dive trip, I boarded a liveaboard to Socorro Island, a volcanic island in the Revillagigedo Islands, a pelagic paradise. It was my first visit to the island, and I wanted to swim with and photograph giant oceanic manta rays and the Clarion angelfish. On the wall, I noticed a Chinese trumpetfish (Aulostomus chinensis), a solitary fish by nature, with a Clarion angelfish by its side. The saturated red-orange Clarion angelfish and the golden trumpetfish stood out in the blue ocean, projecting calm and serenity. I swam slowly toward the couple, who stared at me calmly, and then pressed the shutter release.
While diving in British Columbia, I noticed a female kelp greenling (Hexagrammos decagrammus) resting on a yellow sponge. The fish seemed to be part of the sponge, with its yellow fins blending in. In the cold waters of Vancouver Island, the fish seemed to be staying on the sunny golden sponge to warm itself. The fish was stationary, making it easy to photograph.
The orange-peel nudibranch (Tochuina tetraquetra) is a large nudibranch that can grow to 30cm and weigh up to 1.4kg. Its vibrant orange color and size make it hard to miss. I photographed this nudibranch with a 7-14mm lens.
After heavy rains, tannins from the mangroves wash into the cenotes of Mexico, creating a layer of tannic acid that stains the water brown or orange gold on the surface. Seeing the tannic acid layer is a unique experience. In the cenote, I used a fisheye lens to show the waters above me, tinted with orange-gold tannins, creating energy, excitement and the impression of being on Mars. Visit: fitimage.nyc
REFERENCE: Wikipedia.org
