Denis became involved with marine photography after building a waterproof housing for a Pentax K. Being a keen surfer the idea was to photograph friends surfing but he soon realised he would rather be surfing as well, so when the surf was down he turned the camera on sea slugs and has been hooked ever since. He quickly moved to digital with an Olympus C5060, then on to an Olympus C7070 after drowning the C5060. Fortunately only minor modification was needed to fit the new camera into the PT-020 housing. Wanting to get into macro photography and lacking funds he built an underwater flash and a slave, its basic but it works. He is only a snorkeler but hopes to move to tanks in the future (when he wins the Lottery). Living just north of Byron Bay on the east coast of Australia, Denis is in an area rich in marine life and his attempt to document as many local invertebrate species as possible can be seen on his website www.roboastra.com. He can only access relatively shallow waters but all major phyla are covered with an emphasis on Sea Slugs.

Nudibranch Species Photographed by Denis Riek

(116 species)

Nudibranch Photos by Denis Riek