Tag Archives: Akron Zoo – Akron

Spot Prawn

Spot Prawn

The important thing to remember about evolution is that nothing is moving along any sort of master plan. Evolutions just sort of steps in and tweaks stuff until it’s good enough for survival. Then it tells the critter “go eat something and have sex”.

Many evolved features make more sense when you keep this mind.

Lookdown

Lookdown_1

My approach to photographing fish in aquariums is to use a lens that can be placed directly on the glass, then use a flash to direct light at the fish. This keeps the focal plane parallel to the air/glass and glass/water boundaries, so you don’t get odd refraction ruining the shot. It also blocks extraneous light from bouncing off either of those boundaries and into the lens, where it could cause glare that also ruins the shot.

However, if the fish is really shiny, even this approach doesn’t give you a great shot as it can easily be over- and under-exposed in the same image. I typically aim for under-exposure in this situation as, while not as accurate as I’d like, it does create a rather striking image.

Duck

Duck_1

Duck pondering the idea that, if you give the top level of government to a bunch of billionaires and the first thing they do is take away people’s health care, using job lock-in to prevent them from exploring entrepreneurial opportunities, that maybe that alone is proof that trickle down economics doesn’t work.

Krill

DSC_8102

I went to the Akron Zoo today to see their reef exhibit before it closed. As many of you know, I love shooting seahorses. However, they were all hanging out at the bottom of the aquarium and I couldn’t get a good angle. Luckily, their food was free swimming and well in range.

This is a krill (or something krill-like). This little guy is about three millimeters long and about half a millimeter wide. It is capable of moving in three dimensions just slightly faster than autofocus allows. I took this shot, free hand, with the help of a single solitary flash.

This may be the most challenging normal* photo I’ve ever taken … so even though I’m not caught up on processing, I’m posting this one early to brag.

* The non-normal photos I took in Nicaragua are more challenging, and that is why the photos have paused. I need to finish those suckers.