As well as the myriad of corals and fish that the islands of the Indian Ocean  are famous for. We spotted these Herons, Crabs and Sharks while strolling along a beach whilst on holiday in the Maldives. The heron seems to have been oblivious to the human activity, in fact it took advantage of the chairs left in the sea to use as a fishing perch and allowed you to get really close to photograph it, unlike the one that regularly visits our garden pond in the UK who’s very timid.

This was the first outing with a new Panasonic FZ-45 camera. Excellent 24x optical zoom, although didn’t need it with this heron. It’s small and light enough to pack into a backpack without all the weight of the SLR system. Image quality seems to be first class but then the light was very good, when the weather improves at home in the UK we’re hoping to try it out at the local bird reserve.

Black Tipped Reef Sharks

These black tipped reef sharks were regular visitors to the inner reef, often feeding on the small fish that they would force in shoals and then charging into the fish ball scattering the ball. 

All along the beach you would find these ghost crabs scuttling along and then quickly disappearing down their holes, making getting any close up images a real challenge.