mathas

As the owner of a new aquarium, the first I've kept since the advent of digital cameras, I've recently begun trying to teach myself how to photograph fish. I really don't have a lot of photography experience as it is, mostly just taking snapshots of friends at various events, but I've found that trying to capture a 2" fish while it's moving is a whole different experience!

Camera: Canon PowerShot S3 IS
Lens: whatever comes with the camera
Shooting Mode: Manual
Aperture: F3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/20 second

I intend to add pictures to this thread as the tank grows/changes, sort of an ongoing "critique my pictures and help me become a better photographer while I show off my fish" thread.

Here is the tank prior to adding any fish:


The plants are all live (my first attempt at a planted tank!), and include Anubias barteri, Cryptocoryne wendtii bronze, Echindorus blaheri, and Echindorus cordifolius. I'm still thinking about adding at least one Anubias nana, but I'm going to wait for the smaller plants to grow out and give me a better idea of how they will fill in before I make any drastic aquascaping changes.

The first fish I added were three red-tailed rasboras (or brilliant rasboras, as the LFS around here call them). I'll be heading back this afternoon to pick up a few more, and hopefully increase the school size to around 8-10. After what seemed like hundreds of pictures, but was probably only 50-75, I finally got two where you can tell that they are fish and not just blurs!




I then added my cleanup crew: two albino bristlenose plecostomus, and seven corydoras (I think Corydoras trilineatus).



I'm by no means an expert on sexing plecos, especially ones as young as these, but if the beginnings of bristles are any indication, I have one male and one female. I think the one in the picture above is the male, because the other one is the same size but does not have the little barbels around the front of the head.

The corys were still a bit stressed last night from the long drive home from the LFS and the new tank, but hopefully tonight they'll be a little less camera-shy, and be willing to pose for some photos!

sirdarksol

Beautiful tank.

Allie

Love it!

David C

Your photos are beautiful, and that is a gorgeous tank setup.

COBettaCouple

Beautiful pics of your great tank and fish!

Slug

Nice tank. I've tried my hand at shooting those brilliant rosaboras, tough task i agree. You have some really good shots of them. That shot with the bristlenose would be hard anyway, so much white in the frame it'd be hard not to overexpose something, nice job there.

mathas

I appreciate all the comments so far! I'm also open to constructive criticism, if anyone has some to share.

The corys are still a little skittish when I get near the tank, but I'm very large and they're very small, so I can understand where they're coming from! There is one little guy (or gal) that doesn't seem scared of the giant:



I think I managed to get the substrate slightly more in focus than the fish, which is something I'm trying to figure out how to overcome, but you can still see the beautiful markings that made me choose these ones.

I'd thought when I first got them home that they were Corydoras sterbai, but now that I have this picture of one staying still for a fraction of a second, I think they look much more like Corydoras trilineatus. Either way, these little guys are awesome, and full of energy!

I also have quite a few malaysian trumpet snails that help keep my substrate stirred up and help me explore the macro limits of my lens:

sirdarksol

How many cories do you have? They are bravest when they have fellows to be brave with.

mathas

Seven.

They're definitely out and about, swimming all over the place, they just duck into the plants when I get close enough to the tank to take pictures. I just brought them home yesterday, though, so it's understandable that they're not used to me yet.

Lucy

Nice tank, nice pics, thanks for posting them.

sirdarksol

Yeah, with that number, it's likely just skittishness from the new surroundings. They'll warm up to you.

mathas

I said yesterday that I was going back to the LFS to increase the school size for the red-tail rasboras... they only had four left, so naturally I took them all. My ultimate goal is a school of at least ten, maybe more, but seven is good enough until the next shipment comes in.

Even just with the bag floating in the tank, my original three rasboras were pretty excited to see the new arrivals. They'd swim around the bag for a bit, then dart off and turn around like "why aren't you guys following us?", then they'd come back and do it again.

Here's a couple of shots I was able to get this morning of them hanging out together:





I also got a better picture of the face of what I think might be my female bristlenose... despite being slightly larger than the other one I posted a picture of earlier, the barbels are far less pronounced on this one.



I'll be heading back to the LFS on Friday to place an order for five or six bolivian rams, and either purchase a few more rasboras or have them order a few more for me.

mathas

Dinner is served!

peacemaker92

Your tank is beautiful! Never seen such a tank that would take my breath away even in a picture! Your photos are splendid too, they're so clear and non-blur! Awesome man! Well done!

Btw, I don't think anyone would want to criticize you. Your pictures and your tank is just awesome!

mathas

While I appreciate the kind words, there's always room for improvement

For example, I still have issues controlling what my camera focuses on, as evidenced in this picture:



The corys are a little blurry, while the cave behind them is sharp.

But sometimes I get it right! Here is a group of the corys being far less shy than they were during the last photo session:

mrsmuffin

Great tank and awesome pictures!

morganrules

really beautiful tank

Gamer

Very well done!