National Aquarium: Baltimore, MD(WARNING 15 shots)

fire34fighter · Jan 20, 2008

Took a trip out there this weekend.Got a few pictures that I like, had a few pictures I could have liked, but were ruined by the plexiglass gages/glares/poor lighting...Anybody have any tips for shooting zoo/aquarium photos?...Because of the glass and all, I didn't really get any fish shots I liked due to dirty water/plexiglass and the reasons stated above....Anyway, heres what I got:

I figured I'd start the set with an image I took outside before we went in...This is fort McHenry, the place in which one of the biggest battles of 1812 took place. It was at this very hill that Francis Scott Key would sit and watch the battle. It would in turn inspire him to write a song. What song you ask? It would be none other than My Star Spangled Banner, also known as the United States National Anthem. Normally I'm not big on selecive coloring, but I did it in this case to really make the flag the center point.

1.

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

C&C please!

fire34fighter · Jan 20, 2008

I wasn't sure whether this should be in the general or nature gallery, so if it needs to be moved feel free to move it, and I apologize.

fire34fighter · Jan 21, 2008

that bad huh?

lifeafter2am · Jan 21, 2008

I really like number 6! Overall a pretty good series.

fire34fighter · Jan 21, 2008

lifeafter2am said:
I really like number 6! Overall a pretty good series.

Thanks. Any critique as to what I can do to get better shots?

lifeafter2am · Jan 21, 2008

It's kind of hard because a lot of the time I find nature shots tend to look snap-shotish (even most of mine). I personally have shot a ton of animal pics being so close to Seaworld and Animal Kingdom and such, yet like very few of them in post-processing.

All that is to follow is my opinion!

1) Try to get the animals doing stuff they would do in the wild.
2) Try to make it look like it was shot in the wild, not in a cage / tank
3) Like you did with the frogs, get up close with smaller creatures
4) Birds: unless they are colorful or doing something really interesting, its hard to get an interesting shot.

Like I said, I tend to find wildlife harder to shoot.

JumboShrimp · Jan 21, 2008

Brian, Ms. Bernhardt would love these pictures

I like 2 and 3 for the vividness of the picture.
My favorite is number 10, i cant really put my finger on the reason, but it is my favorite of them all.

fire34fighter · Jan 21, 2008

lifeafter2am said:
It's kind of hard because a lot of the time I find nature shots tend to look snap-shotish (even most of mine). I personally have shot a ton of animal pics being so close to Seaworld and Animal Kingdom and such, yet like very few of them in post-processing.

All that is to follow is my opinion!

1) Try to get the animals doing stuff they would do in the wild.
2) Try to make it look like it was shot in the wild, not in a cage / tank
3) Like you did with the frogs, get up close with smaller creatures
4) Birds: unless they are colorful or doing something really interesting, its hard to get an interesting shot.

Like I said, I tend to find wildlife harder to shoot.

Thanks for the critique. I agree with you on shooting wild life...I shot about 200 shots, but deleted half of them because they didn't stand out.

I'll work on trying to catch them doing things like they would in the wild.

Hopefully when I get my 100-400 It'll allow me to get better angels/zoom to achieve this.

fire34fighter · Jan 21, 2008

JumboShrimp said:
Brian, Ms. Bernhardt would love these pictures

I like 2 and 3 for the vividness of the picture.
My favorite is number 10, i cant really put my finger on the reason, but it is my favorite of them all.

Thanks Hoss. I found I really liked number 10 as well, mainly because of how sharp/crisp it came out.

rob91 · Jan 21, 2008

The selective coloring on #1 is corny.

lifeafter2am · Jan 21, 2008

fire34fighter said:
..........
Hopefully when I get my 100-400 It'll allow me to get better angels/zoom to achieve this.

Yes, I would assume it would!

ashadiow · Jan 21, 2008

The frogs kick ass. When you were shooting, which lens did you use? I am sure that there isn't a ton of light in there... like a zoo, and your images all came out pretty good. What settings did you use?

Oh, and #3 and #6 are my favorites.