AQWA, WA Aquarium Jan 2006

I had never been to AQWA before, and this time I went along with my 2 year old cousin. I can't say a 2-year-old makes for an easy time of photo-taking, but a few shots came out well enough to put on a page. AQWA has its own web page with shots of fish taken by people without two-year-olds along.

Equipment: Nikon D70, 17-35mm f/2.8 AF-S, 60mm f/2.8 AF Micro

		Fish and Coral: Staples of your marine wildlife exhibitions. Here we have a spotted fish of no fixed abode, and some coral
Leafy Seadragon: This little beastie is to a seahorse, what a cuttlefish is to a squid. Basically the same stuff, with extra frilly decorations. From the website, this is one of the prizes of AQWA, and it is pretty. They're sensitive to light, so you can't get close enough to take a really nice photo. (In case some idiot ignores the sign and uses a flash)
Seahorses: There was a small tank full of these little critters all swimming around. They claimed to be breeding them, but I didn't see much family resemblance.
Marine Tunnel AQWA has moved into the century of the leafy sea dragon and adopted an underwater perspex tunnel with a moving floor so you can stare at the wrong side of several types of fish. They've some some spectacular rays, a few sharks, some ugly fish, and a shy turtle. Here are some of the schooling silvery fish that dart overhead, below are some shots of the magnificent rays going past.
Lighting: One of the most challenging parts of getting photos in an aquarium is lighting, dealing with the lack of real light, and dealing with the various special coloured lighting designed to show off one or another feature of the seathings. Here are some nicely illuminated small jellyfish, and a very dimly illuminate shrimp, caught crossing the place of focus.