Etu Moana

'Etu Moana' is the Maori word for blue starfish.

I just returned from a fantastic trip to Aitutaki Atoll in The Cook Islands in the heart of the South Pacific. I had a feeling that a great sunset would materialize this night and I spent 3 hours walking up and down the beach looking for a suitable foreground and wasn't having much luck until I glanced down and saw this little guy. He was invisible without polarized sunglasses and luckily I had just put mine on. Believe it or not, these guys move pretty fast and I had to use a high ISO to keep the shutter speed up and hold the limb movement to a minimum. This was a fairly productive trip photographically and I will be posting more shots from these beautiful islands over the next couple weeks.

Canon 5D MkII 16-35mm lens at 16mm
5 seconds at f20 ISO 320 and a 2 stop hard graduated neutral density filter.

PS: The trip was paid for with my grand prize in OP's Iconic 100 contest! It pays to play!