Gary McDonald

Entrou: 03 de ago. de 2014 Última vez ativo: 21 de mar. de 2024 iNaturalist

BS in Biological Sciences, 1970, Cal Poly; MA 1978, Moss Landing Marine Labs. I've been doing closeup and macrophotography of marine invertebrates since 1970. I started with a Nikon F and micro Nikkor 55mmm f/3.5 lens, (and PB4 bellows for small animals); moved on to N2002, then Nikon F4, then Nikon D200, then Nikon D800, with micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 lens, or micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 lens for marine invertebrates. Now using Nikon D850. For very small inverts I used a Nikon macro Nikkor 19mm f/2.8 lens or Minolta bellows micro 12.5mm f/2 lens on my bellows. Since I retired I also photograph insects using micro Nikkor 200mm f/4 on a monopod, and SB800 flash or Nikon R1 flash system. Over the years I amassed a large collection of 35mm slides of local marine inverts, now I've started to try to create a similar collection in digital format.
Most of my marine invertebrate photography is done in the intertidal or (for smaller specimens) in a small temporary aquarium, after which specimens are returned to the intertidal.
Aside from having fun photographing, the main purpose of my terrestrial photography is to document all of the plants & animals that occur on the 3 acres around our home, & on our 80 acres at Willow Springs. I post my photos at 500x750 mainly because we live in the country where we don't have access to high speed internet.

I bought a Canon 40D and later Canon 70D to take advantage of the MP-E 65mm macro lens, and MT-24EX flash to photograph the tiny guys. Not exactly easy to get the subject in focus, but anything hand-held at 4x or 5x won't be easy because of the incredibly shallow depth of field. I'm just happy to be able to photograph some of the tiny guys in the field.

I've studied nudibranch systematics, taxonomy, and nomenclature, as well as their feeding preferences for about 40 years. See: Nudibranch Systematic Index and Nudibranch Food List and Nudibranch Bibliography.

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