Hermit Crab - Aquarium of the Pacific

[King Mango]

Waited and waited and waited...
Finally he came close enough to the edge of the tank (and into an interesting looking spot I hope) for a macro with my low budget camera.
Have I framed it well? This is the first day I ever tried to take a photograph instead of just shooting texture and architectural references.
Does the macro effect work well enough? I'm a bit bummed about the loss of definition on his antennae. I'm not sure if that's due to movement or being out of focus.
This was the first shot from a recent trip I actually stopped and looked at for more than a second. I was pleased to find probably ten or so shots out of about a thousand that held my interest.
When I get to my photoshop box I'll fix the scratch in the tank glass and see if I can reduce the horizontal glare on the left. Anyone see any other anomalies I might have missed? It was shot purposefully at 16:9.
Shot in Macro Mode. I did not adjust to these settings but here they are for you gurus:

Panasonic DMC-FZ7
f/3.2
1/20 sec
ISO-200
16mm focal length
Max aperature 3
35 mm focal length 105


I'm happy with the shot overall. Should I be?

 

[bla]

I really like the detail on the crab, but I would have framed this picture differently. Maybe more real estate to the top and the right. Given this image, I would crop almost all the background from the left. Also the colours fall a bit flat, maybe give it a try by adjusting the contrast and saturation.

A quite successful image, and I think you should be happy with it; I wouldn't worry about the antennae. Keep in mind though that this may not be considered truly macro.

 

[King Mango]

Thank you for the input bla! I somehow overlooked the notification for your reply. I will see what I can do with the image.

 

[darkpbstar]

very interesting species. Great photo, and I agree, it could use more of the shot above, but hey, you got what you were looking for, and remember, if the shot makes you happy, and brings back the memory, than that's all you need. I don't think this would be macro, but a great shot nontheless.

 

[King Mango]

Thanks darkpbstar. It does indeed conjure the memory of a good trip.
I suppose I know now that it's not macro even if I shot it with some tele in macro mode on my cam. It's just a setting in this case.
I've been messing with it tonight and I'm not sure if it's done yet.

I do have a new technical question about shooting with my DMC-FZ7 though. How can I minimize those blown out areas in so many of my pix as seen in the crab's shell. I took a friend out a few weekends ago and so many of the shots are awful in this regard. Panasonic sells a ND filter but I have to buy an adapter as well so it's not such a cheap decision seeing as how I may want to spend money on a DSLR in a few months. But in the meantime is there a trick I can use on the fly with my stock cam?