 |
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| I couldn't get my beautiful (but timid) wife to get
aggressive enough to pet the dolphins, although she did pick up a
starfish. |
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| I took these shots of the moral eels both by natural as well
as flash. Can you tell which is which? |
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| This was the first time I had tried flash in an aquarium and
it worked well. I was handholding the flash off to one side and
triggering it with the ST-E2. |
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| Obviously you have to watch for reflections, but I held the
flash at an angle. And, of course, the digital review helped me
greatly. |
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| I love sea turtles, and the SeaWorld exhibit provided good
photo opportunities. |
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| The red bird is part of the park -- the heron is an
interloper. They come right down for the seal and sea lion feeding,
aggressively taking the fish right out of your hand (so it's easy to get
pictures of them). The one on the right was about 12 inches away
from me (and wouldn't budge). |
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| The noisy sea lions begged shamelessly for the fish. |
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| Although they photographed better, I didn't like the sea
lions as much as I liked the quiet seals, who sat there patiently waiting
to be fed. |
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| I included these shots, even though they're terrible, to
show how hard it is to get a good shark picture. They swim deep in
the tank where the flash doesn't go, and move so fast it's hard to get a
good focus lock. |
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| The best shot I could get of the manatee (in his flash
killing curved glass enclosure) was the stone one my wife posed with. |
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| The turtle mating shot is actually not the
shot it could have been -- I should have framed it lower so you could see
the reflections (but I didn't notice it at that time). Mudskippers
are far right. |
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| One thing I sure learned from these shows --
see them first, then photograph them. |
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| We didn't have time to do it again, but next
time I'll have a good idea what's going to happen and then be able to
anticipate better. |
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| The corporate symbol of SeaWorld's new
owners. |
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| Lessons Learned: |
SeaWorld was very touristy after having gone to the Zoo and
Wild Animal Park. Yet I got some of the best images there, due to
the fact it was overcast much of the day, and a lot of the exhibits were
indoors (so I used flash).
It's not a match for a good aquarium, but if you're in the area it's a
lot of fun and offers some things (like dolphin encounters and the sea
turtles) that aquariums don't. |
Sea World (San Diego)