Blue Planet Aquarium

[IPClark]

Took the little'un here today. He loved it

Of course, took the camera too. Have to say, it's quite a difficult place to get decent shots. Many of the tanks are convex and/or very thick plastic, so focus on a moving object is pretty much impossible. However, I did get some good shots off of subjects in the flat sided tanks. Not compositionally perfect but still acceptable.

ALL shots were taken with the Sigma 105 Macro lens with my 430EX II diffused, wide angle disperser down and reduced down 1/3 FEC. I thought I'd get flash glare but I didn't. . All the shots are also taken at F8 and 1/200 shutter speed with the exception of one or two which might be at F10 or something. EXIF is intact. Ooh, and ALL were manual focus as I had to constantly adjust it.

Post processing is simply a little clarity, contrast, brightness and on one or two, a Velvia film reproduction action.

#1 - Yellow Poison Dart Frog
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609173100_QPuqp-O.jpg

#2
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609173931_NvqUA-O.jpg

#3
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609174013_HKvw2-O.jpg

#4
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609174344_KpjXr-O.jpg

#5 - This little guy was about 2cm long - Red-backed poison dart frog
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609174331_mBe9H-O.jpg

#6
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609174413_xqtif-O.jpg

#7 - Photographing a constantly moving clown fish is NOT easy
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609173081_a6TCB-O.jpg

#8
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609173353_DpCGU-O.jpg

#9
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609173048_F9pLh-O.jpg

#10 - This guy did actually stop still and pose
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609173544_t2ftG-O.jpg

#11
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609173402_GrH3v-O.jpg

#12 - This is some kind of sea snail, algae muncher or something. Whatever it is, the colours were stunning on it
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609173619_fCxzf-O.jpg

#13
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609173963_X8taX-O.jpg

#14
http://ipc.smugmug.com/photos/609173686_bTTeF-O.jpg

That's all I got. There was so much more to photograph but I had to ensure that I didn't take too much time as we went mainly to take the little'un there.

[lynnma]

wow.. some of these must have been quite hard to get. 4,10,11. and 14 are my favorites.

[IPClark]

Hi Lynn,

Thank you. There were multiple attempts I don't mind saying :)

The clown fish seem to know when you're just about the press the shutter button as they either dart off or turn away :)

[Harryb]

Excellent set under less than optimal shooting conditions. Thanks for sharing the processing and shooting info. You must have had some good light if you were able to use iSO 100 on these images.

[IPClark]

Hi Harry,

Thanks for the compliments. :)

Actually, light was quite dim as is usual in almost all aquariums. However, the light sources within many of the tanks being good. As I was shooting in full manual mode, I had full control over what settings I could use.

I didn't need to use anything other than ISO 100 because I was using ETTL on the flash which provided me with all the light I needed to compensate for smallish aperture and fast shutter. In fact, I powered down the output of the flash on a number of shots to ensure no detail was lost in blown highlights.

The only time I ever increase ISO is if I'm not using flash and I need a faster shutter speed without opening the aperture too wide to maintain DoF.

Being honest, I think I struck lucky as well :)

[Bud1880]

Very colorful and interesting subjects. Well done Ian, it was fun viewing those. Thanks for sharing.

Bud

[IPClark]

Thanks Bud :)