The Secret Lives of Seahorses at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

aktse

The Monterey Bay Aquarium closed their Living exhibit of Jelly Fish a few months ago and just recently opened up their new Sea Horse Exhibit. This was past weekend was a preview member’s only opening and I couldn’t resist – I had to go! :smo

Luckily for me, dadwtwins (Dan) decided to join me! I'm so lucky to have photographer friends that live near by!

I didn’t really know what to expect and honestly thought the sea horses would be the size of sea monkeys. They’re actually bigger than expected and range between ½ inch to 14 inches!

I expected to see many wonderful creatures with over 15 different type of species in the exhibit. I was armed with a borrowed 5dMkII, my 40D and an array of trusted lens from fast primes, a macro, and a fisheye. I learned photography by shooting ice hockey -- low light, natural light, fast action through glass. I figured this would easy for me! Fish in glass -- easy peasy! I was so wrong. :dunno

What I didn’t expect was to have so many problems. I spent the first half hour + in a state of chaos and I wanted to trash every shot that I took. I didn’t have issues with exposure as I expected, but could not nail the focus; everything was just a blurry mess and I wanted to give up and put my cameras away. :cry

I finally found Dan when I hit full panic mode and he gave me some advice and a bit of a scolding which I really needed to hear.

I calmed down enough to get these images.

1.Leafy sea dragon


2. They look like weeds


3. Camouflage


4. Pinky colored sea horse


5.Sea Horse with a translucent fin


6. Looks like feathers, but are a species of sea horse


7. I think they're called long-nose something. Weed dragons, i think.


8. Entrance to the Outer Bay Exhibit where the jelly fishes + tuna + shark reside. I was lying flat on the ground and everyone was staring at me. I wanted to wait until there wasn’t anyone in the entrance, but after sitting on the floor for 15 minutes, I realized it wouldn't happen. Now, I’m happy that I have people in the frame since it provides perspectives. This should can only be done with a ultra wide fisheye on a FF body.


With tails like monkeys, little pouches like kangaroos and head that look like horses, these fishes are anything but ordinary. I just hope my photos capture their beauty and uniqueness of these magically creatures.

Lessons learned -- close up the aperture, step away, cropping is your friend, just wait, patience and some shots are impossible with the curvature and lighting of the glass.

C&C welcomed and appreciated. (and thank you Dan!)

JPerkins

I'm glad you stuck with it. I enjoyed the shots. Amazing creatures. Very fragile.

pathfinder

Nicely done!

It looks like you had some light to work with also.

I tried to shoot sea horses at the Aquarium in Chattanooga and it was so dark my efforts were horrible. By dark, I mean so dark it was hard to see with the naked eye!

Ann McRae

Well. April, if I needed another reason to visit you, I just found it!!!!

Great stuff! Love the fish eye, and you are right about having the people in it!

ann

rhys_chard

Here's my pic of the same sea horses
Taken at the same place and probably around the same time

ian408

BTW, a little birdie told me that the Jellies will be back at some point

These are wonderful. I can imagine with the various schools being out, a visit to the aquarium is best done on a weekday.

dadwtwins

Hey April,

You did great even with the extremely difficult shooting conditions. I have not yet seen tack sharp pictures of these guys that did not have tripod access and were trying to shot in the same condition we saw.

The lighting was so bad that even with the naked eye it took awhile to see these jems of the sea. The lighting was mostly backlight through moving water which played chaos on the shadows messing with your focus even in manual. Trying to get a lit front view was hard because of the thick dirty curved glass and the approximation of the seahorses to the glass.

Once again April, you did a great job with the tools you had and the limitations that were put on you.

Awais Yaqub

These are beautiful April ! clap

schmoo

Very cool! I remember you or Dan posting a shot of you lying on the floor to get the ceiling with the fisheye. I think it's worth the strange looks and yah, the people around the edges is awesome!

You did a great job, especially under such difficult circumstances. Congrats on the effort and persistence, and I think it paid off in more ways than one.

aktse

JPerkins wrote:

I'm glad you stuck with it. I enjoyed the shots. Amazing creatures. Very fragile.

I'm glad that I stuck with it too! They're amazingly difficult to shoot too! I still don't know why I thought they were the size of sea monkeys!

aktse

pathfinder wrote:

Nicely done!

It looks like you had some light to work with also.

I tried to shoot sea horses at the Aquarium in Chattanooga and it was so dark my efforts were horrible. By dark, I mean so dark it was hard to see with the naked eye!

Thanks for the kind words! Some exhibits were better lit than others, but in general, the monterey bay aquarium do any amazing job with their exhibits. You have to stop by when you come out here to visit!

aktse

Ann McRae wrote:

Well. April, if I needed another reason to visit you, I just found it!!!!

Great stuff! Love the fish eye, and you are right about having the people in it!

ann

You have to definitively come back for a visit since your next visit was so short and rushed!

aktse

rhys_chard wrote:

Taken at the same place and probably around the same time

It's such a small world! Nicely done! The leafy sea dragons were magnificent!

And welcome to dgrin! Keep posting!

aktse

ian408 wrote:

BTW, a little birdie told me that the Jellies will be back at some point

These are wonderful. I can imagine with the various schools being out, a visit to the aquarium is best done on a weekday.

Yeah! I love the jellies! The aquarium still has few displays for people to see, but I really loved their last exhibit.

I completely understand about the crowds! It's one of the reason why I wanted to go during the members only preview weekend! When are you getting yourself down there?

aktse

dadwtwins wrote:

Hey April,

You did great even with the extremely difficult shooting conditions. I have not yet seen tack sharp pictures of these guys that did not have tripod access and were trying to shot in the same condition we saw.

The lighting was so bad that even with the naked eye it took awhile to see these jems of the sea. The lighting was mostly backlight through moving water which played chaos on the shadows messing with your focus even in manual. Trying to get a lit front view was hard because of the thick dirty curved glass and the approximation of the seahorses to the glass.

Once again April, you did a great job with the tools you had and the limitations that were put on you.

Shooting condition was extremely difficult and completely goes against the intuition that I've learned over the past few years.

I have to go back and use your tips! I wouldn't have gotten these photos without. Thank you so very much! For everything bow

aktse

Awais Yaqub wrote:

These are beautiful April ! clap

Thanks! They're are indeed beautiful and delicate!

aktse

schmoo wrote:

Very cool! I remember you or Dan posting a shot of you lying on the floor to get the ceiling with the fisheye. I think it's worth the strange looks and yah, the people around the edges is awesome!

You did a great job, especially under such difficult circumstances. Congrats on the effort and persistence, and I think it paid off in more ways than one.

I did take the shot before, but the FF frame camera really makes it pop. My photo of the 40D wasn't nearly as sucessful! Both times, people kept on staring at me!

When are you going???

tisun

April, don't be too tough on yourself. You did an amazing job under the conditions that were nearly impossible to get good shots. I tried to captures sea dragons at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and had very few keepers. Besides the thick glass and so little light, people kept getting the way. Additionally, my body movements as I was focusing caused sea dragons to move in and out of focus. Very tricky.

I am thinking of going this weekend and be mobbed by the crowd.

Phyxius

April,
These are great! I still like my jelly pictures from when you took our crew there in December. I need to see if anything cool is going on at the Baltimore Aquarium.

Travis

You definitely made a great recovery! The color, subjects, lighting, and sharpness are all excellent. Thanks for sharing!