Another trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific

[Blazer88]

I was in Long Beach CA this week for work and of course slipped away to the aquarium for some new shots. I was there earlier this year but didn't have a very good lens to use (I didn't like my 24-105 F/4L), my 17-55 F/2.8 IS was a much better choice this time around to deal with the low light. I think the shots came out ok considering the typical public conditions (low light, no tripod, and of course they wouldn't turn the pumps off for me, lol). I'll post some of them, the rest of my shots are in my smugmug gallery. Enjoy!

1) Crazy looking Wrasse. Tough to photograph since he was in a cylinder tank, I was lucky that he swam directly in front of me.


2) Big and ugly cold-water fish


3) Nasty looking Moray Eel


4) Bird Wrasse


5) This guy was really tough to photograph since he was at the top of the tank. I was just blindly holding the camera up and took a bunch of pictures, this was the best that I could get.


6) My first Octopus that I've ever shot. This little guy (2-3") was just chilling on the glass.


7) A cool cold-water anemone tank


8) Moorish Idol


The rest of them are in here.
http://parchen.smugmug.com/gallery/3995033

[Marko9]

Ever since my trip to Bora Bora,I am a sucker for parrotfish. How cool was that sun coral display? Thank you for sharing.

[Tank Predator]

WOW FREAKING AWESOME PIC'S

[Blazer88]

Originally posted by Marko9
Ever since my trip to Bora Bora,I am a sucker for parrotfish. How cool was that sun coral display? Thank you for sharing.

The sun coral display was very cool (they were actually feeding cyclopeeze when I was there). I really wish I could have used a tripod and get them to shut the pumps off to get some depth of field but oh well. Thanks for the comments.

[ssbreef]

As usual....... Fantastic pics bro!

[maroun.c]

Very nice pictures.
Did you use any software for noise reduction or is this the usual camera performance at 1000 ISO?

[crazedpuffer]

Awesome shots!
Also what fish is this one? It's really cool looking.
http://parchen.smugmug.com/gallery/3...232315034-A-LB
Also I love that cold water anemone tank, might have to do a tank like that myself soon.

[Blazer88]

maroun, there is some noise reduction when I convert the RAW from Adobe Lightroom to CS3 and then I also use Noiseware Professional. I'm ok leaving a little bit of noise in there since I don't want to reduce the details too much.

crazedpuffer, that fish you have linked is a Catalina Goby which is local to the coast of California. They like colder water (60'ish if I remember right). They are some nasty looking little guys with some teeth

[crazedpuffer]

Thats pretty cool, thanks.

[maroun.c]

Thanks for the info Blazer.
I really liked the pictures on your gallery.

[flameangel88]

Blazer:
Those are beautiful pictures and thanks for sharing.
FA