Description

It’s been a while since I’ve taken photos of shrimps but ticking something off the bucket list was worth the hell this little prick was putting me through.

Annoyingly I found this Emperor at the end of one of our long beach dives in Phuket, you know like already 110 minutes in and about 40 bar left in the tank. Not the best time to stop and take photos, your cold, worried if you have enough air to make it mostly back to the beach and I’d already put my macro lens away.

But… This was only the second Emperor Shrimp I’ve even seen, both on Kata Beach. This one was on a common pink Sea Star, was not expecting it at all, but pink Sea Stars are rare at Kata so I had a quick look and bam, there he was.

After quickly getting setup for the shot he decided to hide in the dark of the Sea Star legs, these guys are super tiny, that wall it’s on is actually the side of a small Sea Star.

They move quick too, did not like the light and spent most of the time running around and hiding in new spots all over the place on his home. I really did not enjoy the chase, this photo was the best that came of it.

I will get another shot at you little bastards, mark my words!