The gallery bellow is a collection of photographs taken off the coast of Wakaya Island in Fiji and exhibited in the lobby of the Exley Science Center. The exhibit focuses on the colors and textures of two animals: octocorals and giant clams. 

Octocorallia a subclass of the class Anthozoa and are sometimes referred to as octocorals, they are soft corals with polyps growing along eight planes of symmetry. Unlike stony corals, octocorals do not form a calcium carbonate skeleton but instead have internal structures made of calcium carbonate called sclerites  imbedded in its soft tissue.Members of the Tridacneae subfamily also known as giant clams are the largest living bivalve mollusks and highly endangered. Pictured here are the mantles of  the species Tridacana gigas and Tridacna derasa. Tridacneae can grow up to 1 meter in length, can weigh over 200 kg, and can live up to 100 years.

These photographs were taken on a Canon 7D SLR in an Ikelite housing using a 100mm Canon EF f/2.8L IS USM Macro lens. The wide angle shots were captured using a Tokina 10-17mm fisheye lens. For lighting two Ikelite DS 161 Digital TTL strobes emitted 320 watts of light compressed into typically 1/125-1/200 of a second. “The fish never flinch, because they cannot believe they saw anything that bright for that short a time. I leave them undisturbed otherwise but believing in God.” – Joshua Boger