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Hi @johnvila
I personally had no idea how sea cucumbers spawn and I think you’ve witnessed a rare behaviour, thanks for sharing these images with us.
Wondering if anyone else had photographed this before, I googled the matter and found a few shots, one of them by David Doubilet himself!
You’re right, these photographs need to be seen together as a series to tell the whole story.
From a framing perspective, I like #2 but I wish you were slightly more to the left, so we can see the rear of the animal (like we can see it on #3).
To win a contest though, you’d also want to add the drama of your last photo: full blown jet of “juice” flowing out of that sea cucumber => this would sum-up the whole behaviour into one shot, with highest impact.
That said, you’re probably in the right season to see this behaviour, so keep your eye open (and your EMWL ready), there might be seconds…
Back to your image series, they may interest a magazine if you’d be inclined to have them published.
DiveLog Australasia for sure, or perhaps Scuba Diver Magazine (ANZ edition).
In terms of post processing, if these were mine I wouldn’t wiped them out clean of particles. On images 2 and 3 I would just remove a handful of blobs, the most distracting ones. On 6 – 7 (I did not do that on purpose ;)) I feel the juice is slightly over-exposed, but i wonder what would happen with a big of dehaze, perhaps localised.