Over the past few months, I have fallen in love with aquarium photography. It's a win-win for me...I don't have to actually go into the ocean (I'm just a bit scared of sharks), and I can stay in front of my subject for hours, not having to worry about breathing in the water. As long as the exhibit isn't crowded, I'm in luck.My aquarium photography started with a visit early last year to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long beach, CA. They dedicated an evening in the aquarium to me and about 100 other photographers. This was a wonderful thing for the aquarium to do for us. My favorite photo from that evening is this detail of a Ragged Lion fish:

After a hiatus from aquariums, I was able to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium just last month. I rediscovered my love of photographing aquariums, and fell in love with jellyfish as subjects:

Last week I had the opportunity to visit La Jolla, and visited the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Birch Aquarium. This is a wonderful research and education aquarium, and exhibited my new favorite subjects:

If you get a chance, please check out my Flickr collection of aquarium photography. I'm having so much fun with this and love seeing how I am progressing.

Thank you as always for stopping by!

Yesterday I promised Day 31 getting its own post, and here it is! For Christmas I got tickets to The Aquarium of the Pacific's Photographers Night in Long Beach, CA. After all the non-photographers went home, the aquarium stayed open for me and 300 other photographers to let loose and take pictures. It was so wonderful of the aquarium to do this for us, however, all 300 people at one time were trying to take photos of the sea dragons, and then half moved over to the octopus. The outside parts were closed (no sea lions or lorikeets), but many of the exhibits stayed lit until 10 pm.

It was great to see so many photographers, and there was a range in equipment and skill level from point and shoot to pro. They also had Nikon set up to give free equipment rentals for the evening (enticing, but I was toting the 5D).

This was also my first real outing with Mark the 5D, but of course we made quite a team. An ISO of 6400 in an aquarium is magical. And yes, everything that has to do with my new camera is magical.

Of course I took a few hundred photos, but fish are fast little buggers. Also, thick, round acrylic aquariums aren't really the best conditions for the pesky little task of, you know, focusing. Among all the little fishies at the aquarium, I found this detail to use for my 31st photo in my Project 365:

I love the detail of this fish's fin. When he was moving, he looked like lace. I caught him while he was resting at the bottom of the exhibit (by this point I was kind of tired of chasing fish around). I love that when you first look at this image, you don't know that this is a detail of a fish. By the way, I don't know that this fish is a guy, I'm not a marine biologist. Taken at 1/160 at f/2.8, Tamron 90mm, ISO 2000.

But I TRULY cannot just pick one. Here are some of my favorites from the evening (All photos taken with Canon 5D Mark 2):

I love the detail in this living coral. Taken at 1/320 f/3.2, 90mm. ISO 6400.

I did a bit of experimenting with blurring the pretty colored fishies:

1/2 second at f/2.8 with Canon EF 70-200f/2.8L, 165mm, ISO 800.

Of course everyone wants to see the jellyfish. Thankfully, by the end of the evening a lot of the crowd had thinned out, so I got an opportunity to get these jellyfish photos:

Taken at 1/40 at f/4, Canon EF f/4L IS 24-105mm24mm ISO 6400. Some stray flash from other photographers, aquarium lighting.

Taken at 1/125 at f/2.8, Tamrom 90mm ISO 6400. Aquarium lighting.

And what kind of photographer would I be if I didn't play around with my FISHEYE lens at the AQUARIUM? :

Taken at 1/100 at f/2.8, Canon 15mm fisheye ISO 6400. Some stray flash from other photographers, aquarium lighting.

It was a great experience, and I cannot wait until the next photographers night! Thank you Aquarium of the Pacific for the photo opportunity! You can check out my edited photos on my Flickr set.

And as always, thank you for stopping by!