A few more from this weekends zoo walk

robbins.photo · Mar 10, 2014

Derrel said:
Penguin looks to me like the focus is adequate, but the aquarium glass is causing that Canon-look effect. lol.

The fish is neat-looking. The shot of your brother in law looks good too.

Lol.. nothing like a penguin pic as an excuse to needle the Canon folk I guess. Oh, and for the record that ape did not marry my sister. She married the ugly one.. lol. Good thing they don't frequent this forum or I'd most likely be hearing about that one later too.

robbins.photo · Mar 10, 2014

symplybarb said:
Great shots. Shooting aquarium pictures is hard!

Low light and everything being in constant motion plus thick glass is usually not a great combo for picture taking, that's for certain. But I just do the best I can and see if I can't get a keeper or two. Think I'll be taking some more in the future and get in some more practice, get some techniques down for dealing with some of the more challenging aspects of taking fishy pictures.. lol

bribrius · Mar 10, 2014

you did a excellent job, from what i see here.
wonder if my 50mm would manage on this?

robbins.photo · Mar 10, 2014

bribrius said:
you did a excellent job, from what i see here.
wonder if my 50mm would manage on this?

Should manage it fine, if I figure out how to improve the process any on my next few aquarium pass throughs I'll let you know

Civchic · Mar 10, 2014

I used my 50mm f/1.8 at the aquarium in Toronto about a month ago, you can see some in my flickr (I don't want to thump down pictures on the OP's thread). I got a few reasonable keepers out of about 150 shots, which I think is pretty good for an aquarium.

robbins.photo · Mar 10, 2014

Civchic said:
I used my 50mm f/1.8 at the aquarium in Toronto about a month ago, you can see some in my flickr (I don't want to thump down pictures on the OP's thread). I got a few reasonable keepers out of about 150 shots, which I think is pretty good for an aquarium.

Nonsense! Thump away! Would love to see them and get any insights you might have for taking good aquarium pics.

Civchic · Mar 10, 2014

Haha, well ok - you don't have to ask me twice! LOL. I was pretty proud of what I accomplished that day.

feb 8 best flying ray by civgirlca, on Flickr

feb 8 big tropical fish by civgirlca, on Flickr

feb 8 sea dragon best by civgirlca, on Flickr

As for tricks, I had to shoot wide open with the 1.8, right close to the glass (almost bumping the lens) or I got wicked reflections, and used Servo focus. Fast-moving fish were almost hopeless. I was new to the prime lens, so I had a bit of trouble with framing (cut off some tails and fins), especially combined with having to concentrate so hard on focus and reflections, and not really being able to take a step back. Plus it was ridiculously crowded - I thank my parents for managing my kids (yay grandparents day!) so I could concentrate on picture taking. Ha.

robbins.photo · Mar 10, 2014

A thumping good thumping, I must say.. lol. Love the ray in particular, but man that sea dragon is just awesome. I'll have to try getting closer to the glass myself, though if I do I'll probably have to switch to the 50, the 85 will most likely be too much lens for that.

Civchic · Mar 10, 2014

Yeah, you'll probably cut off a lot more tail and fin than I did with the 50.

I actually got the best shots in the dark aquariums with the rays and the dragons - the bright shark tank was impossible, and I got better photos in there with my cell phone! Plus the sharks move way too fast to get a sharp image that I wanted to keep.