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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

I was delighted and shocked when my friend Serene found this tiger tail seahorse (hippocampus nomes). I haven't seen one here in SG for more than two years. Fun fact; seahorses have no stomach, just a long tube. They are curious creatures. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

It's Doto season here in Singapore! These Doto Greemanyeri are only found on hydroids. One of the more surreal nudis I come across, and rather petite at about 3cm. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

How can you not love them? Note the stabilising tentacle to stop getting blown away in the current yesterday. Sepia latimanus, Broadclub Cuttlefish. My first and favourite cephalopod. #marinelife #underwaterphotography #scuba

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Had some trouble identifying this young nudi at my local spot here in Singapore. "Long pink tentacles" is a popular genre when it comes to nudibranchs! Past experience makes me think Pteraeolidia Semperi - but it's a bit short. Facelina? Tennelia? Not sure. 🦑 #scuba #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

I just loved the colours of this Haigh's Porcelain Crab (Porcellanella haigae) nestled into a sea pen (pennatulacea) where they exclusively live. Not my favourite species of porcelain crab but they scrub up okay. #underwaterphotography #scuba #marinelife 🦀

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

An Emperor Shrimp (Zenopontonia rex). The "bonus" is that's not a rock, it's Thelenota anax, one of the chonkiest sea cucumbers, and the shrimp will spend its life on it. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

People usually go to Sipadan for huge schools of fish, but this pygmy squid (idiosepius) was my favourite find! The size of a thumbnail, you can make out individual chromoatphores on its skin. Adorable. They have a glue gland in their mantle that helps them stick to surfaces. #scuba #marinelife

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Underwater photography without a strobe can be like waiting for lightning to strike, only you miss time and again. But when it strikes... Chevron barracuda, Sphyraena Qenie, have holes in their jaws allowing them to fully close their mouths, a rarer trait in fish than you might think. #🦑 #scuba

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Goldstriped Sweet Lips (Plectorhincus chrysotaenia) at the magnificent Richelieu Rock in Thailand. An astonishing amount of sea life, soft corals, and an absolute mosh pit of divers (~100 in the water!). A complete circus, but circuses can be entertaining, too. #scuba #marinelife

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Whip coral goby (Bryaninops amplus). These little fellows are very difficult to photograph, they will scuttle around the whip coral avoiding you like it's a game of tag. Palau Hantu, Singapore. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Haigh's Porcelain Crab (Porcellanella haigae). It's hard to convey how impossibly small this was. It made the sea pen it's clinging to look like a sky scraper. You can see the grains of sand clinging to it. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

The gills on this gorgeous goniobranchus kunlei are posed so delicately here. I was especially pleased by the angle of my strobe here, it helps the gills pop. #marinelife #scuba #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

A giant trevally (caranx ignobillis) punches through a school of its smaller brethren, the big-eyed trevally or jacks (caranx sexfaciatus). #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

I loved the unintentional 360 view of these two chromodoris nudis. They obviously enjoyed each other's company, as I found them in the exact same spot the next day! #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Sea moths (eurypegasus draconis) are very strange, very small fish (3"/10cm). They walk on modified pectoral fins, have a bony carapace they shed like an insect and a cute little beak. You can see this one snapping up a small shrimp in the sand. #scuba #marinelife

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

The skin of a peacock sole (Pardachirus pavoninus). Larval sole actually have eyes on each side of their heads; during puberty, the eyes migrate across their bodies. Their camouflage is adaptive due to chromatophores much like a squid. Incredible. #scuba #underwaterphotography #marinelife

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

A wall of big-eyed trevally aka caranx sexfaciatus. I followed this swirling gyre of life for 40 minutes or so. You can identify these by the black spot above the gills and white tip on the dorsal fin. Males turn black when courting. Sipadan, Malaysia. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

One thing I love about hermit crabs is that they can be left or right-handed. This anemone hermit crab (Dardanus pedunculatus) is left-handed like me! Like beloved pets, it will take its collection of anemones with it when it moves to a new shell. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography 🦀

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

This was a good find, a harlequin swimming crab (Lissocarcinus laevis). Don't be fooled by the name; they are found almost exclusively under or on anemones. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

A group of big-eyed trevally, aka jacks (caranx sexfaciatus). This was an offshoot of a huge school I spent about 40 minutes cavorting with. To me, jacks always look like a fart they expected to be silent has made a rather loud noise. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

I love how the pre-dawn light dapples the stripes on this giant trevally, caranx ignobilis. It was very early - about 5.30 - and this big guy was slowly cruising the wall, looking for breakfast. The entire world was stained prussian blue. Sipadan, Malaysia. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

A little chromodoris nudi (colemani I think). I like this photo for two reasons: 1) I got the closest rhinophore in focus - this is harder than it looks! 2) the soft coral on the left (some type of Heteroxenia?) is absolutely crawling with brittle stars. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Crocodile flathead, Cymbacephalus beauforti. A long macro necessitates a close up of this rather large fish, but it does highlight some beautiful colours and textures. Bottom-dwelling fish are typically a riot of texture, I especially like the pupils. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Goniobranchus leopardis, tucked under a rock. I liked the way this caked up nudi's gills are on display; they look like a flower in this photo. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

A little nembrotha kubaryana, about 4cm/1.5" long. It's so interesting, how much marine life has vivid reds at depths where there is little or no red light. These diminutive nudis live on a diet of equally tiny sea-squirts. #scuba #underwaterphotography #marinelife

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Adorable Ophichtus Bonaparti - Napoleon snake eel. They use their sharp tails as shovels to burrow into the sand. Snake eels often have a perturbed expression like this one; I find it quite endearing. Mabul Island, Malaysia. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Pteraeolidia semperi, aka a Blue Dragon. Probably the most commonly spotted nudibranch in south east Asian waters, and no less adorable for it. I like the way its rhinophores pop against the darker rock here. Mabul Island, Malaysia. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

A Girdled Glossodoris (Glossodoris Cincta) plows its way into the light from my snoot. I love the combination of textures and colours these medium-sized nudibranch have. #sendnuds #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

I always like seeing lionfish on night dives; it's the only time you will catch them in the open water. For such rapacious predators, I find them quite diffident. At Seaventures' house reef, Mabul, Malaysia. #scuba #underwaterphotography #marinelife

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Orangutan Crab has a good hair day. Mataking Island, Malaysia. #underwaterphotography #scuba #marinelife

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

A little blenny - possibly a monocled coral blenny - checks to see if I've gone. Mabul Island, Malaysia. #scuba #marinelife

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

A little Chromodoris nudibranch getting a blow dry from the current in this drift dive. Trying to maintain plane of focus on the rhinophores when current is ferocious like this is very challenging! #underwaterphotography #marinelife

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Sunset on the Seaventures dive rig, Mabul Island, Celebes Sea.

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

I am staying on a repurposed oil rig for diving in the Celebes Sea. I just love the oily steampunk vibes it gives off.

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

This is depressingly common and infuriating.

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

A typically moribund op-ed in the NYT: "Is the America we know slipping away?" - I feel like a political divide the media can't see is between people who understand the status quo is dead (left and right), and people who think it can be salvaged. It's gone - and why save it? It brought us here.

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Aquarium, gotta love it. It turns out I was, in fact, ready for this jelly.

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

The best thing about Kinokuniya is that you can always find something that is *exactly* what you're interested in.

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

This is a very interesting paper. It asserts that companies took advantage of COVID/Ukraine supply chain disruptions to raise prices - even when their products weren't impacted. My sobering implication is that we can expect similar behaviour due to tariff uncertainty.

sciencedirect.com

Implicit coordination in sellers’ inflation: How cost shocks facilitate price hikes

Supply shocks are now widely recognized as a driver of the recent inflation bout, but the role of firms’ pricing strategies in propagating input cost …

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

I was captivated by the views of Mt Qilai. A river of clouds was rambling up the valley before spilling over the tree line. Just gorgeous. #taiwan #landscapephotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

Absolute raging stonker of a sunset, +3000m in the central Taiwanese mountains. #taiwan #landscapephotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

I hope that both parties really absorb the lesson that Australians are deeply disinterested in silly culture wars, imported or not. The coalition, to stop reaching for them like a security blanket; and labor to stop cowering from them like a monster under the bed. We are a better people than that.

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

That unsettling disquiet you feel when your cat is making eating sounds and it's outside of meal time.

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

It's amazing how crimson the anemones are; this is at a depth where there is virtually no natural red light at all. #scuba #marinelife #maldives

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

love the way the sunlight dapples this black-tipped reef shark. They are omnipresent in the Maldives. #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Spotted eagle rays, gliding through endless Maldivian seas. #marinelife #scuba #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

There was something almost painterly and impressionistic about these two massive barracuda above us, grimly surveying the wall. #maldives #scuba #marinelife #underwaterphotography

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Patrick G @paddyboomsticks.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Shooting at depth without a strobe is always challenging, this dive especially so. The site is at the entrance of the wharf, the water is turbid and full of sand and excited divers of varying abilities. Also there were a dozen tiger sharks. #scuba #underwaterphotography #maldives

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