Category:Aquarium Photography

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1 Aquarium Photography

Aquarium Photography

An Introduction

Aquarium photography is much like aquarium keeping. It takes a fair amount of initial expenditure. It’s as easy or as difficult as you make it. It can provide countless hours of enjoyment. It inspires appreciation for these creatures among not only those who practice the hobby, but also those who witness it. And, of course, everything goes a whole lot smoother with the help of a good web site.

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It’s a whole different ball game. Sort of.

Note: This introduction, and much of the content of the aquarium photography section, was originally intended as a book on aquarium photography.

What the world doesn’t need is another book on photography. Go check out your local book store or browse online. Plenty of people have written plenty of books about photography. Nature photography, studio photography, the art of photography, close-up photography, portrait photography, underwater photography… you get the idea. Some of them are excellent and well worth the read.

But the reason I’m writing this – and the reason you’re reading it, I imagine – is because there’s not one single book about aquarium photography. Do we need one? Certainly, the technical aspects are the same. The shutter and aperture work the same way, the rules of composition apply, and generally speaking, the same principles that make a landscape photo excellent will make an aquarium photo excellent.

So why do we need a book about aquarium photography? For the same reason we need books on landscape photography, and underwater photography, nature photography, and portrait photography: It’s a different discipline. The challenges are different, the opportunities are different, and the skill set you need to develop is different. One can certainly pick up several good books on photography and, with practice, figure out what works in an aquarium and what doesn’t. The reason for this book is so that you won’t have to.

We’ll explore the basics first- some basics about equipment, and how to take technically good pictures. This should be enough to get you up and running, taking great snapshots of your little microcosm. Then we’ll go into some of the deeper aspects of photography. Namely, how to make your aquarium photos more than simply a record of your in habitants.

My sincere hope is that, by the time you’ve finished this book, you’ll have come to the same realization I have – that one hobby has led to another. That you’ve found a whole new way to discover inspiration from inside those glass walls. And that aquarium photography is indeed an art form all its own.

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The digital revolution (and why the heavy focus on digital)

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen the birth of aquarium photography as a phenomenon. Not too long ago, pictures were taken to show off our tanks, possibly to get help with a troubled fish or coral. Except for a few pioneering souls, such as Scott Michael, Bob Fenner and Greg Rothschild, it wasn’t much of an art form.

That’s not surprising at all, considering the difficulties we face with aquarium photography. It wasn’t for lack of trying; certainly a lot of film was exposed in the pursuit of a beautiful aquarium photo, all too often with frustrating results.

Enter the digital camera and with it instant feedback, cost-free mistakes and experimenting, and the freedom to just push the button and see what happens. As the digital camera became more affordable and entered more households with aquaria, we saw an undeniable revolution in aquarium photography.

It’s still happening. The photos get better every day. The techniques become more well-known. And more and more people enjoy first viewing, then taking, aquarium photographs as an art form.

It’s still possible to take great aquarium photos with a film camera in the hands of someone with a good understanding of photography and how it applies to aquaria. But we’re all a lot better off going digital.

So, since digital photography has revolutionized the art of aquarium photography, and is the hands-down best way to practice it, that’s what we’ll focus on. If you insist on starting out with film, the theories you’ll find in this book remain the same regardless. But give serious consideration to purchasing stock in a film manufacturer or your local developer.

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