Four Fish Fotos

[gparr]

While waiting for the July Atlanta Reef Club meeting to start, I had plenty of time to explore the host LFS, Creation Reef & Aquatics, Woodstock, GA. It's a relatively new store, selling marine fish, corals, African cichlids, discus, other FW fish, and very nice looking FW plants. Plenty of dry goods, too. The systems looked to be clean, well put together, and the animals healthy. A very pleasant store.

Since I had my camera gear with me, I couldn't resist taking a few fish photos. Here are four of them:

Anthias

Sand-sifting goby

Unknown goby

Watchman goby

 

[pookstreet]

Once again, beautiful shots, Gary! Just curious, would you mind sharing the lens and setting info with us? I forgot if you shoot with Canon or Nikon. Thanks.

 

[Russellaqua]

Great shots. I can never get good photos of fish like you do.

 

[killingseed2000]

very nice photos and some nice fish too!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Gorgeous shots Gary!

 

[ahayes13]

great pics !

 

[SaraB]

Great shots Gary! It's nice when you don't have to chase the fish with the lens ... gotta love the goby's!

 

[cparka23]

Once again, beautiful shots, Gary! Just curious, would you mind sharing the lens and setting info with us? I forgot if you shoot with Canon or Nikon. Thanks.

I'm curious what aperture you use to chase anthias around the tank. Is it a lost cause without a fast lens?

 

[gparr]

Thanks to all.

Kenny, Cparka: These were all shot with my 180 macro, handheld with my flash on the hot shoe, head angled and a white card attached. Because holding the 180 steady is difficult, at best, I had more rejects than normal. I also don't recommend hand holding a 180 to photograph fish. Sara's right, stationary gobies helped. I almost never shoot fish of any kind with the 180, but these were in a cube tank with a center column and rock next to the column. I needed the extra reach to fill the frame with fish as much as possible. My normal fish lenses are the 24-70, 85, or 135, the latter two with extension tubes.

Three of the shots were at f/8 and the sand-sifting goby was at f/11 because of the angle. ISO on all was 400 with flash exposure compensation at +1. Flash was on manual at either 1/2 or 1/4 power, I don't remember. Shutter was 1/60 sec. for all shots.

Cparka: I find anthias to be relatively easy to shoot because they tend to hover. I long ago quit chasing fish. I wait for hovering fish to stop or find the spots where swimming fish stop to turn or stop to check out the surroundings. All of your fish have fairly regular patterns. Find the stopping/turning spots, set up there and your success rate will go up. The only fish that I find difficult, regardless of the situation, are clownfish. They never stop for anything.

Gary