This is one of my absolute favorite photos I've taken. Sometimes, you just get lucky--for one thing, it's pretty rare to have 200' visibility in 30' of water near shore. And could I have asked these fish to pose any more aesthetically? The cast: in the foreground, pennant butterfly fish (Heniochus diphreutes), then just behind a school of yellowfin goatfish (Mulloidichthys vanicolensis),several Hawaiian Dascyllus (Dascyllus albisella), and if you look closely in the lower right you'll see a saddle wrasse (Thalassoma duperrey)making a guest appearance.

A Lined butterflyfish (Chaetodon lineolatus) keeping an eye on me...one of our largest and most beautiful butterflies. This is the only one I've ever encountered.

A Common longnose butterflyfish (Forcipiger flavissimus) nipping at coral polyps...that's a White tail chromis (Chromis leucura) at lower right.

Pyramid butterflyfish (Hemitaurichthys polylepis), having their cleaning needs attended to by a Hawaiian cleaner wrasse (L. phthirophagus)

Not my best photo--but I had to get a shot of this fish, as I've never seen it before! It's a Thompson's butterflyfish (Hemitaurichthys thompsoni), although the color appears to be atypically dark--H. thompsoni is usually pictured as silvery-grey. You can see a few more individuals in the background.

One of my absolute favorite fish, and one of the least common in Maui waters--here's a pair of Saddleback butterflyfish (Chaetodon ephippium). Amazing coloration!

Another look at Microcanthus strigatus in the surge...I still can't believe we found a school of them!

Not a good quality photo by any means, but since this was my first opportunity to photograph a Stripey (Microcanthus strigatus), I'll take what I can get. This is only the third time I've encountered this shy, rare fish, and the first time ever I've seen more than a single individual at one time. (See next photo in gallery)