Southern California is experiencing the annual June Gloom. It’s a cloudy, overcast condition which is supposed to keep the temperatures down. But the temperatures this year have been down already; we are experiencing a very cool (but not cold!) spring. And the June Gloom is UGLY! 🙂 I remember moving to SoCal seven years ago on June 2nd, and for the first few weeks all I saw were the grey, sad looking mornings. I didn’t know about June Gloom back then, and I questioned if we really wanted to live in such a grey looking place. But I know now, that it passes.

Anyway, I still don’t like the look of it. So, when yesterday I drove down to the ocean for the second time this week, and I found the same grey conditions as before, I almost turned back home. I should not have expected anything better, but I did, and this made me cranky. I took my iPhone out and snapped a few pictures.

After this one I decided that I wouldn’t leave before I checked out the low-tide rocks at least. I climbed into a somewhat hidden area, where I noticed some tiny movement in a tide pool.

The Sea Anemone wasn’t too happy that the crab kept climbing over it, but I was delighted to see something colorful.

It was amazing to see how the crab’s colors blended in with the colors on the rocks. At this point I decided that I wasn’t letting the June Gloom determine my mood – I was going to find and capture more of these lively, camouflaged creatures in and around the tide pools. My DSLR emerged from my bag and the fun began.

The crabs came in many different sizes and colors. Something that I can say about all of them is that they were very shy and alert. If I made a tiny, sudden movement, they hid immediately. Then I would wait patently and as still as possible for them to come back out and continue searching for food or actually munch on something. Here is a selection of images of the crabs I saw. I’ve included one or two pictures where you might need to search for the animal, because they blended into their environment so well. Enjoy!